The Little Great Seal
by TheLittleDarkLord
Summary: The world is a harsh place for Persona Users. Lonely, cast aside and despised by everyone, Minato can't see any light in his future. In a new attempt to give him a better life, Nyx moves to the small town of Port Island with her little Persona User and his adoptive brother Ryoji, hoping things will change for them. And things did change, but not in the way she expected.
1. The Newcomer

_This story is based on Persona 3, but it's mostly a reimagination (not sure is that's the right word to use), so many things won't match with the original plot._

 _Maybe I didn't need to mention that, but I know some people prefer fidelity to the game and this story goes MILES away from it, so…_

 _Better safe than lame! :D_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ _Persona and anything related to it are intellectual property of Atlus. Anything from any other franchise belongs to their respective creators. I only own this story._

 _And yes, I know this disclaimer has no legal value and can't protect me in court, but at least I want to make clear that, if I violated any law or copyright, I had no ill intention!_

 **The Little Great Seal**

 **Chapter 1: Newcomer**

Darkness. The only thing around him was darkness and an oppressing emptiness.

Minato could move his body and turn his face around, but there was absolutely nothing nearby. At least, nothing he could see.

In fact, it was so dark he couldn't even see his own hands desperately moving in front of him, looking for anything or anyone while he walked deeper and deeper in the unknown.

Heart filled with fear, he tried calling for Ryoji or Nyx, but his voice echoed infinitely, never reaching anyone. He tried doing the same a few more times to no use, until being forced to admit there was absolutely no one else aside from him there.

Minato sat on the ground and began to cry. As far as he remembered, Ryoji and Nyx were the only family he had and the only people that ever cared about him. Now, he was completely and utterly alone in an unknown place, probably for the rest of his life.

He didn't want to die like that. He didn't want to die alone.

"Don't cry, young one. I'm here with you."

Minato's eyes widened in fear. Who said it?

"Wait just a moment, I'll show myself to you."

A light appeared in front of Minato, blinding him for a moment. When his eyes got used to the brightness, he saw the figure of a man standing in front of the light.

He didn't think twice; Minato ran at full speed to that person. He didn't care who he was or how he got there, the only thing he wanted was company.

When he was just a few steps away from the man, he finally saw his appearance and immediately stopped, even taking a few steps backs in apprehension.

The man had a very striking appearance, with an extremely long nose, bloodshot eyes, a wide smile and some gray hair. He dressed very refined clothes, looking like a butler. He was also very tall, although it could be just Minato mistakenly seeing as such due to his small stature.

Noticing how the boy seemed scared of him, the man chuckled a bit and adjusted the collar of his shirt.

"I'm sorry for scaring you. My appearance is a bit striking and I appeared way too suddenly," the man said with a very courteous voice. "However, I mean no harm to you, little one. In truth, I'm here to help."

Despite still a bit frightened by the man's look, Minato seemed to become more comfortable with his presence after hearing his calm voice and seeing how gently he treated him.

"Please, follow me," the man asked, turning around and slowly walking away.

Although Nyx always told him to never accept anything from strangers and much less follow them, Minato didn't have much choice in the current situation and went after the weird man. After all, it wasn't like he had anything to lose; he was completely alone in the dark, Nyx and Ryoji nowhere to be seen and absolutely no one to miss him aside from them.

He did follow the man with some steps of precative distance, though.

What felt like a few seconds later (in a place like that, Minato had no sense of time and couldn't say for how long he stayed there), they found a very well adorned door that let a faint blue light escape from beneath it. The man grabbed the doorknob, opened the door and politely invited Minato to enter.

With apprehensive steps, the little boy entered the place and found himself in what seemed to be a club.

There was a light globe on the ceiling, many tables with drinks of many colors, a stand with some tall chairs and a jukebox to the corner.

The size of the place greatly surprised Minato, but what he found most curious about the club was its color.

Wherever he looked, everything had a tone of blue. He wasn't very sure of what kind of blue it was (he never was very good with colors), but he once heard Nyx talking about the color of paint she wanted for Minato and Ryoji's room and got interested in something extremely similar.

If his memory didn't fail him, it was called velvet.

"Please, take a seat," the man appeared at his side, startling him a bit, and gently gestured to a chair nearby.

Slightly confused at what was happening and what was that place, Minato slowly sat at the chair the man showed him and fidgeted nervously. The man took the chair in the opposite side of the table, put both hands on his lap and closed his eyes, letting out a low sigh that had a faint glimpse of nostalgia.

"Ah… it's been a long time since I last put foot in this place," the man said calmly, eyes still shut, before putting a hand in his pocket and taking what seemed to be a deck of cards.

Minato observed curiously the deck in his hand, immediately recognizing it as a tarot cards deck. He saw Nyx using one of those a few times before, but aside from his adoptive mother he never saw anyone else using it.

The long-nosed man shuffled the cards, put some on the table and gently gestured to them saying:

"Please, choose a card."

Not sure of what was happening and why, Minato carefully choose a card, turned it and took a good look at the picture.

He didn't know that card; at least, he didn't record ever seeing it in the deck Nyx had.

"Ah, the Fool," the man said while taking the card and looking at it with interested eyes.

Minato felt a bit sad when he heard the card's name. Did it mean he was a fool?

"The Fool is a very unique card, with great power and meaning," the long-nosed man said with a smile. "Its number is the zero, which means nullity, the void from which all other things begin. It means madness, inexperience and chaos, but is also a symbol of creativity, innocence, spontaneity and, above everything else, infinite potential."

Infinite potential? That one Minato liked.

"You choosing this card wasn't a mere coincidence," the man continued. "There's a power inside you that, although awakened, can be further developed to greater lengths and is deeply linked to the infinite potential you hold. This potential will lead you to a great destiny."

Great destiny? That sounded neat.

"However…"

A catch…There's always a catch…

"That same potential may bring great hardships and dangers to you and all around," the man alerted serious, but never breaking his smile. "You'll face powerful enemies and be forced to fight some of your greatest fears."

That sounded intimidating.

"You won't be alone, though," the man said reassuring. "Your family will stay at your side all the time and I will gladly offer my assistance as much as possible. Not only that, but you'll meet people during your journey that will the key for fulfilling your destiny. Be careful, though, as those same people can also be your ruin if you aren't careful."

Minato gulped loudly.

People? But he wasn't good with people! He never was and doubted he ever would!

If everything he said was true, then how was he supposed to fulfill that 'destiny' of his?

"Ah, look at time," the long-nosed man looked up, prompting Minato to look too.

Much to the boy's confusion, he saw nothing but the bluish ceiling. Maybe that man had some ability to see time or something like that; he somehow took Minato from that dark place and took him to that mysterious club after all.

"You're nearly arriving at your destination, which means we must finish our conversation," the man announced.

Minato wasn't exactly comfortable with his current situation, but he didn't want to leave yet. He had so many questions and that man seemed to have the answers. If not, then he could at least give him some idea of what was happening or explain what was that club.

"I see you have many questions in mind, my young boy, but our time is short. I must send you back to your world," the man said like he could read Minato's mind. "Do not worry. I ensure you this won't be the last time we meet and, in your next visit, I'll answer everything you want to know with great pleasure."

Minato shook his head and tried to say something, but the club and the man began disappearing.

"Until then," the man politely bowed while his image vanished. "I must bid you farewell."

…

"Minato! Minato! Wake up, Minato! We're here!" a very animated voice called as Minato felt someone shaking him awake. "Our new house! Look!"

Still a bit drowsy, Minato rubbed his eyes and let out a yawn.

"Look, Minato! Isn't it beautiful?" the same voice from before said to him.

Turning his head to the right, Minato saw a distorted figure that slowly gained form as his eyes got used to the brightness, revealing a very excited Ryoji pointing to something out of the car.

Taking a better position on the seat and putting his earphones aside, Minato looked through the window and saw the house Ryoji was talking about.

It was a one floor house with a wood door and two windows at the front, a tree with yellow flowers to the right, a small garage to the left and was surrounded by a yard with vivid green grass. Around the terrain, there was a simple wall made of red bricks, with an entrance that led straight to the street and had no gate.

It was indeed a beautiful house, just like Ryoji said, but after a few glimpses here and there, Minato also noticed it was smaller than their previous one and felt a bit disappointed by it. A smaller house meant less internal space, and a good internal space was something the little boy considered one of the top priorities of any habitation that could be considered decent.

He could understand why the house was smaller, though.

With rents going up nonstop and inflation reaching excruciating levels, Nyx wouldn't (and couldn't) afford an expensive house; her job as Goddess of Night paid well, that's true, but the bad economic situation of the country forced even her to 'tight the belt'.

Besides, she was already doing a lot for him and Ryoji by putting them in a very good and RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE school, move to a new town so they could attend it and, on top of all that, leave her super ultra mega amazing office in Tokyo for a not bad, but very 'meh' one in that town called…

Minato couldn't even remember the town's name.

In any case, Nyx was already doing a lot for them, so he felt like complaining about the house she was SUFFERING to pay the rent after all those sacrifices she did just so he and Ryoji could have a good education would be extremely selfish and insensitive of his part.

While Minato still looked at the house with a slightly disappointed look, Ryoji lost no time and opened the door, jumped from the car and ran to the yard, anxious to check everything. Nyx was already out and opening the car trunk to take the bags and boxes they brought, leaving only Minato inside.

With a sigh, the boy slowly got out of the car, closed the door and walked to the house, stopping a few steps away from the front door.

From a closer angle, Minato noticed the house wasn't so small as he initially thought, but there was no way to deny their previous one was bigger. On the bright side, Nyx said the new house had more rooms than the other despite being a tad smaller, which meant he and Ryoji wouldn't need to share a room.

Not that he minded sharing room with Ryoji; in fact, it was comforting to have the boy's company during the night and most of the day.

Minato and Ryoji were raised by Nyx like brothers and created a very strong fraternal relationship, so sharing room, toys, crayons and other things wasn't a problem for them. In fact, Minato preferred Ryoji to be around as much as possible because his adoptive brother was the only friend he had and, to a degree, the only person aside from Nyx that accepted Minato for what he really was.

Even back in Tokyo, where they previously lived, people didn't see the blue-haired boy under a good light and would always cast him aside. By the way, when I said 'people', I wasn't referring only to humans.

Demons, angels, gods, deities, ghosts… Not even the Shadows, with all their crazily corrupted and aggressively twisted natures wanted him around.

Truth be said, the Shadows were probably the ones that despised him the most.

Why you ask? For the same reason all the others also looked at him with bad eyes, although in a much more moderated manner than the Shadows:

He was a Persona User.

Persona Users, as the name implies, can summon and use Personas, physical manifestations of their psyches that wield magical powers or unmeasurable strength. Most Persona Users can use only one Persona, which is directly born from their hearts and minds, but some have a very elusive ability that enables them to not only control, but also create multiple Personas from their personalities.

That ability is usually known by most people as 'Gift' or 'Power', but the specialists call it the Wild Card.

And, if you haven't guessed yet, Minato had it.

Persona Users were so rare Nyx became extremely surprised to discover that her little boy was one, but that alone never was something that worried her too much. When he started showing signs of having the Wild Card, though, things got a lot different.

Trying to avoid a rushed assumption, Nyx remained skeptical for many years, just searching for the small signs that would prove if Minato had it or not. There were a few things that always made her suspicious, but none of them were extremely relevant or irrefutable evidence, so she eventually stopped worrying and let things happen.

At least until Minato, after trying to protect Ryoji from being bullied in school, summoned a second Persona that was much more destructive and hard to control than his original one.

From that day on, Nyx became totally sure he had the Wild Card and that worried her a lot.

Not only because the Wild Card was extremely hard to be controlled by an eleven years old boy, but it would also make Minato's personal life much harder than it already was.

Due to their powers, the unpredictability of Personas and their unique ability to destroy absolutely any kind of deity or creature, no matter how powerful or godly it is, Persona Users were widely considered dangerous, a public threat and would always be under the watch of the government or some high authority, especially the internationally powerful Reaper Association, which meant Minato would be considered problem and cast aside wherever he went.

Add this to the fact that he was reclusive and had many problems with socialization and you have the perfect recipe for a disaster.

And, if that wasn't enough, there were the Shadows, those vicious creatures born from humanity's suppressed feelings and negative aspects that hated Persona Users with a passion.

Truth be said, Shadows hate everything; humans, animals, sunny weather, rainy weather, strong smells, bright light, darkness, cucumbers, brick walls, printers, toasters, stairs, other Shadows… One could say they only care about themselves.

But if there's something they hate above anything else, it's a Persona User. The reason?

First: aside from deities and other Shadows, Persona Users are the only ones that can permanently kill Shadows using their powers and;

Second: Personas are, in a way, 'tamed' Shadows that remained under the control of whoever created them and are blindly loyal to that person, which made the Shadow Society see Persona Users as people that use Shadows as slaves. In fact, they usually call them 'Shadow Enslavers'.

All those factors together created a very harsh life for Minato in Tokyo, where dozens of people and Shadows would be constantly hostile to him.

Worried with Minato's quality of life, his and Ryoji's education and the enormous amounts of stress the capital caused, Nyx decided it would be better to put them in a better school than the one they attended in Tokyo and move to a smaller town or at least to a house in a quieter place, where not only the two boys could prepare themselves for the future, but also where Minato could live a bit more in peace.

"Phew! I don't remember those things being so heavy when I put them in the car," Nyx commented drying some sweat from her forehead before turning to Ryoji, who was running from one side to another. "Ryoji, help me here."

The boy didn't listen; he was too absorbed in checking every little corner and crack of the new house to notice what was happening around him.

"Oh, jeez…" Nyx shook her head with a sigh, then turned to Minato. "Minato, come here help me."

Minato also didn't listen; he was too fixated looking at the house to notice his surroundings.

"Oh, I see what's happening here…" the night goddess put both hands on her hips, frowned and marched towards the blue-haired boy. "Little mister, I need help. Don't pretend you aren't listening."

When Nyx got closer to Minato, she noticed the boy staring blankly at the new house, his face showing a few signs of apprehension.

"Oh, dear…" all the irritation disappeared in an instant, the boy's worried expression making her heart melt.

She knew that face he was making; it was the same face he always did whenever he was forced to face something new. Change was a thing Minato didn't like and moving to a new house in a new town so suddenly was probably filling his head with all kinds of worries.

"Hey, dear," Nyx gently called Minato, who snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her. "I know you're worried, but I ensure you everything will be okay."

That didn't make Minato feel much better. Not that he didn't believe in Nyx or thought she was wrong, but there were too many things happening at the same time for his comfort.

"Changes will happen all the time and we can't fight against them, but we can face them," Nyx extended a hand to the boy. "Together. You, me and Ryoji. Like a family."

The goddess's sweet words gave Minato some confidence, enough to make him smile a bit more at ease and gently hold the hand she extended to him.

After looking at the whole yard for the ninth time, Ryoji noticed Nyx and Minato standing in front of the house and ran to them. The goddess noticed the boy approaching and extended her other hand to him, which he grabbed and held vigorously.

"Well, that's it boys. Our new house," Nyx said to the two kids, turning her face to look at the building. "I don't know what future has for us, but let's make the best of it, as much as we can."

"Yay!" Ryoji happily celebrated, raising both hands in the air.

Minato wanted to celebrate with his brother, but couldn't find the energy to do so. Deep down, he was still worried about all the sudden changes in his life.

Which also remembered him of the dream he had while they were traveling to the new house.

He was totally sure it was just fruit of his imagination; all the memories he had about it were hazy and, no matter how weird that huge world where he lived was, everything that happened in that dream was way too magical to be real.

A man with a long nose that appears from nowhere and reads Tarot cards? A bluish club materializing from nothing? Above everything else, Minato having a great destiny?

Yes, it could only be his imagination. Maybe Ryoji would have a great destiny waiting for him, with all the powers he inherited from Nyx, but he? No way.

Yet, it felt so real a small part of Minato still wondered if that was just a dream.

 **A bit later…**

Fortunately for Minato, organizing his room was extremely fast. Sure, he had lots of toys he gained from Nyx on his birthday, Christmas and many other commemorative dates (he and Ryoji were spoiled to no end), but aside from them he only had things that were small or very easy to put on drawers and stands.

Books, mangas, comic books, pencils, pens, clothes, shoes… The biggest things he had were his games collection and the Jack Frost plush he gained from a crane machine, but they also didn't need too much space.

Ryoji, on other hand, needed hours to finish organizing all the stuff he had.

Aside from clothes, school material and his many collections, he had the toys he gained from Nyx, toys he gained from festivals, toys he bought using his own money, toys he gained from teachers, toys he gained from friends, toys he gained from girls… Yes, Ryoji was that popular.

There was so much stuff Minato had to help Ryoji or the boy would need the whole week to finish. It didn't help that he would stop every five minutes to do something else like read a comic book, play with a toy, mess with Minato or simply disappear without reason.

In the end, the boys started at one in afternoon and only finished at four thirty-five, mostly thanks to Ryoji's inability to stay focused on one single thing.

With the rooms finished and risked of their 'to do' lists, the two boys left for the living room, where they found Nyx angrily speaking at the phone.

"You said it would be here today! TODAY! What am I going to do without the rest?"

A few moments of silence before Nyx's face turned even more irate.

"Fine! Do however you want, but I want everything here TOMORROW! Take any longer and you may wake up in the morning with a Megidolaon on your face!"

Extremely irritated, Nyx slammed the phone on its base, clenched her fists and furiously grumbled:

"UUUUUUUUUUURGH!"

"Is something wrong?" Ryoji innocently asked.

The goddess froze in place and all blood disappeared from her face.

"Nyx?" Ryoji tilted his head confused.

Recovering a bit from the shock, Nyx slowly turned her head to face the two boys looking intrigued at her, a deep red in her cheeks.

"B-boys… did you see…?" she stuttered.

"You angry at the phone? A bit," Ryoji answered, not understanding the goddess's weird behavior.

"Oh, dear lord…" Nyx facepalmed in shame.

"What happened?" the boy asked.

"T-the guys from the moving company said they can't bring the rest of our stuff today, so they'll come tomorrow in the afternoon," the deity explained while taking her hand from the face, revealing her still slightly flushed cheeks. "Not a reason to get so angry, but that whole thing of moving and hiring people to transport our things is much more stressing than I expected."

"So, we won't have our oven today? Or our sofa? Our chairs? Our refrigerator? Our television?" Ryoji began questioning.

"Unfortunately," was everything the goddess said.

"But how are we going to cook? Or sit in the living room? Or sit to eat? Or stock food? Or watch 'Keeping Up with the Devil Mayas'?" the boy continued questioning.

"Well, we can use some cushions to sit on the floor and I can order something to eat. The watching 'Keeping Up with the Devil Mayas' part, though…" Nyx scratched the back of her head. "That one I'll find a solution later."

Ryoji nodded with a smile, happy to know that Nyx always knew what to do, no matter the situation. Minato was also happy, but really hoped his legal guardian wouldn't order Yakisoba again.

Not that he disliked the dish, but every time Nyx ordered it, she always asked for the biggest size and the three of them would be forced to eat only Yakisoba for two weeks straight.

"In any case, have you finished organizing your rooms?" the goddess asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yes!" Ryoji answered animated, while Minato just nodded calmly.

"Good. Now, what can we do? It's still a bit early to order dinner," Nyx tapped her chin thoughtful, then turned to the boys. "Do you have any idea?"

Minato was about to raise his hand to give a suggestion when Ryoji beat him and said his idea first.

"Oh! Can we go meet the neighbors?"

Minato didn't like that idea. In fact, his idea was to stay home, play videogames, read some good books and wait until the truck with the rest of their stuff arrived.

"That's an excellent idea!" Nyx approved, much to the blue-haired boy's unhappiness. "That way, you can get used to the neighborhood and maybe even make some friends!"

Why everyone was so centered about making friends? Minato had Ryoji and Nyx and that was more than enough for him.

He couldn't understand why Nyx wanted him to make friends so much. It wasn't like anyone would want, anyways.

"Let's do the following: you two go outside and present yourselves to the neighbors while I finish organizing the kitchen and the living room. Just make sure to come back before six."

Before six? That meant…?

"And no, you can't just go greet the neighbor next door and come back," Nyx practically read Minato's mind. "I want you two to go meet as many people as possible."

Ryoji's face shone with excitement while Minato looked down and sighed disappointed.

" _These two are so different. Sometimes, even I get a bit surprised on how well they get along despite that,"_ Nyx commented to herself, looking at the boys' different reactions. _"But maybe I shouldn't. After all, they both…"_

The goddess shook her head to prevent herself from finishing the thought. They had just moved to that new house trying to leave the past behind and there she was, bringing back all the things she wanted to forget or, at least, think less about.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" she clapped her hands and smiled warmly at the boys. "The neighbors won't come present themselves if you stay here doing nothing. Go on!"

"Okay!" Ryoji happily saluted the woman and grabbed Minato's hand, running straight to the door and leaving at an impressive speed, nearly making the other boy trip in the process. "Come on, Minato! Let's make some new friends!"

Taking many quick steps to keep up with Ryoji and avoid falling, Minato tried to force a smile, even if it was just to please his adoptive brother, but couldn't find the strength to do so. Unlike him, he wasn't very excited to go 'make new friends'.

Not that he never wanted to have other friends besides Ryoji, but he knew from the bottom of his heart that nobody would want to be his friend.

The last eleven years were proof enough for him that 'friends' were a thing he couldn't have.

Unaware of the thoughts passing through Minato's mind, Nyx observed the two boys leaving with a smile, hopeful that, this time, things would be different for her little Persona User.

And she was right; things would be VERY different for him, although not the way she expected.

 **In the street…**

If there was something that Minato couldn't understand about Ryoji, even after so many years living with him, it surely was how he could have so much energy.

In the span of what felt like only seventeen minutes (it was less, actually), Ryoji managed to drag Minato to nine different houses and present them to the neighbors, never losing the smile or the enthusiasm.

It was very clear that everyone immediately fell in love with Ryoji thanks to his positive attitude and energy; all words and gestures directed at him were of pure sympathy, coated with lots of invitations to visit or to play at some later moment.

With Minato, though, things went a bit different. Maybe it was his clear insecurity, his awkwardness to speak, the way he constantly avoided eye contact or, worst case scenario, a combination of everything, but people seemed to be a bit… Apprehensive of him.

That's probably the wrong word to use for this situation, but was what Minato saw in their faces.

They looked at him the same way the children from his previous school and even their parents did; always spying with the corner of an eye, like they expected him to do something wrong at any moment and just waited the perfect time to scold or say something about him.

Heck, even the teachers looked at him that way!

The people from the previous school knew he was a Persona User, though, and he did accidentally summon and lose control of his second Persona more than once during class or in the break time, so at least their concern was something Minato could understand.

But those people never met him before, so why were they giving him that same look?

Could it be his appearance? Maybe the way he talked? His posture? His clothes? The striking difference between him and Ryoji? His silence? The color of his earphones? His shoes? His eyes? The way he always kept his hands pocketed?

Well, whatever the reason, it couldn't be because he was a Persona User. Nobody there knew that!

Or did they?

Minato shook his head to dismiss the thought and called himself a fool for thinking such a thing. How could they know? He was new in the area; nobody knew his past or who he was. There was no physical trait that could delate a Persona User and humans were unable to sense the psychic energy unique of Personas that emanated from him. In fact, only deities and Shadows could feel it, so that surely wasn't what was casting him aside.

Which, for some reason, made him feel even worse than before.

"Hey, look! There are some children there!" Ryoji suddenly pointed to two children not far away from them that seemed to be playing a game. "Let's go meet them!"

Without giving Minato time to argue against it, the boy grabbed his brother's hand and pulled him closer to the group of youngsters, losing no time to call their attention and present themselves.

"Hello, there! How are you?" Ryoji happily greeted, dragging a very insecure Minato closer.

"Oh, are you two new here?" asked one of the children, a girl with short teal-blue hair that held what looked like a small portable computer.

"Yes! I'm Ryoji Mochizuki! I've moved recently to the house in the end of the street!" the boy pointed at the direction of his house.

"That old house?" the other child, a boy with short silver hair, a red sweater jacket and black gloves that looked to be one, maybe two years older than Ryoji and Minato, raised an eyebrow. "I thought it was abandoned."

The house was abandoned? What a great thing to know…

"No, no! That's the house in front of ours!" Ryoji corrected.

"Ah, the house at the other side of the street!" the boy realized. "I forgot about that one. It wasn't abandoned, but no one came to live in it for many years. Most of us don't remember it exists."

That didn't sound too good, but was way better than being abandoned.

"Now you have a reason to remember, because I live there! Oh, and Minato too!" Ryoji pulled the blue-haired boy closer.

"So, you're Ryoji and he's Minato," the girl deduced.

"Yes! His name is Minato Arisato! He's my brother!"

"Your brother? But you have different surnames," the older boy commented confused.

Both Minato and Ryoji fell in an awkward silence, the former looking down with a slightly sad expression and the latter apparently unsure of what he should say or if he could say something.

The boys' expressions left both the girl and the older boy puzzled for a moment, but the girl suddenly widened her eyes in shock as realization hit her.

"S-senpai…" she lowly called the older boy and whispered something in his ear.

Whatever she told him, it made all the blood disappear from his face.

"Oh, my God! I'm so sorry!" the boy bowed apologetically, clearly nervous about what happened. "I didn't mean to be rude! I just…"

"Nah, don't worry. You aren't the first one," Ryoji tried to reassure the boy it wasn't so bad as he thought, although still feeling a bit awkward.

"Anyways, I'm sorry. I should be more careful with what I say,"

Yes, he should. Not only to spare Minato of more awkwardness, but also for his own safety.

It didn't upset him that much, but the young Persona User could feel something moving inside him, anxiously wanting to relieve frustration on something, or better saying, someone.

It worried Minato. That Persona was harder to control, but it had been especially disobedient since the beginning of the year, so if it escaped just for a few seconds, it would be enough to create lots of problems.

"Since you presented yourselves, I think it's our turn to do so," the girl politely said. "My name is Fuuka Yamagishi. Pleased to meet you."

"And I'm Akihiko Sanada," the older boy announced. "We both are students at Gekkoukan School."

"Gekkoukan School? That's the school we're going to attend!" Ryoji revealed.

"Really? That means we'll meet every day from now on!" the girl called Fuuka smiled warmly at them. "We may even end in the same class!"

"Wow! That would be so cool!" Ryoji smiled back. "We'll study together, play games together, go to school together… I can barely wait!"

While Ryoji, Fuuka and Akihiko continued talking, Minato remained in silence, just observing the three a bit jealous.

He couldn't understand how they did it; how they managed to speak so freely with people they just met. Minato suffered to speak with people he met, imagine people he never saw before, and yet there those three were, standing right in front of him and talking like they had been friends for ages.

Why couldn't he do it?

"Oh, we spoke so much, but Minato barely had the chance to say anything," Fuuka suddenly commented turning to the boy. "Tell me, Minato, what do you like to do?"

Caught completely off guard by the question, the blue-haired boy's eyes darted everywhere, his mind trying to find what to say.

That was a question Minato hated; anything related to his personal life, be it tastes, hobbies or whatever else always made him go 'super awkward mode'. For him, it was difficult to talk about himself because none of the things he liked to do matched what people of his age did.

Truth be said, some of them did like the same things as him, but even them kept distance from the little Persona User and avoided him like the plague, so no one could blame him for not knowing that there were people who shared his tastes.

Unsure if Fuuka and Akihiko would find him weird for whatever he liked and having no idea of what to say, Minato resorted to the same strategy he used whenever things got too uncomfortable for him:

He looked away a bit lost in thought and remained silent.

Fuuka and Akihiko stared confused at the boy, trying to understand what it meant, a bit worried they touched in a sensitive subject and accidentally offended him.

Noticing that Minato entered in his awkward mode AGAIN, Ryoji decided to take the lead and answer for his brother, like he did many times before.

"Minato likes a lot of things! Play videogames, read comic books, watch television, collect plush toys, draw, do things I can't understand on the computer…"

"Not much of a sports guy, can I suppose?" Akihiko asked.

That question Minato could easily answer for himself; it only needed him to nod.

"Well, that's a shame…" the silver-haired boy crossed his arms and sighed a bit disappointed. "Your physique just needed a bit more of training and you would probably become a very good athlete."

Minato became a bit surprised to hear it.

"Really?" Ryoji asked impressed.

"Yes, he's very thin and a bit taller than someone of his age would be," Akihiko proceeded to explain. "He could easily become a runner."

The 'very thin and a bit taller than someone of his age' part made all the surprise turn into embarrassment.

"I think he's a bit more like me," Fuuka commented. "I also prefer indoor activities than going outside."

Someone sharing his tastes? That was relieving and a bit satisfying.

"Although collecting plush toys isn't something I do," the girl said putting a finger on her chin and looking down thoughtful. "To say the truth, I don't know many people that do it nowadays."

And again, everything turned into embarrassment.

"Oh! There's another great thing about him!" Ryoji suddenly declared with a wide smile. "Minato is very special! He's a Per…"

Noticing what his brother was about to say, Minato quickly stopped the boy from finishing the sentence covering his mouth with a hand, cold sweat running down his face.

"Uh… What happened?" Akihiko asked confused.

Both boys looked awkwardly at the children giving them perplexed looks. Minato didn't know how to explain why he prevented Ryoji from finishing and the latter noticed too late he was about to give an extremely personal and potentially harmful information about his brother to people they had just met.

"Ah… you see…" the black-haired boy gently took Minato's hand from his mouth and scratched the back of his head nervously. "He didn't want me to tell you… because… uh…"

Fuuka and Akihiko raised an eyebrow.

"Uh… he's embarrassed!" the boy loudly affirmed. "It's something he's SUPER ashamed of! That's why he doesn't want anyone to know!"

Minato nodded vehemently; he didn't want anyone to suspect they weren't telling the truth, although it wasn't exactly a lie as well.

"Something he's ashamed of and starts with 'per'?" Fuuka tapped a finger on her chin, seemingly trying to guess what it was.

The two boys began sweating madly.

"Oh, I know it!" the girl suddenly announced, making both boys freeze in place.

"Really?" Akihiko frowned, still unable to guess what it was.

"Yes! I know what Minato is! He is a…"

Tension and LOTS of shivers running down the spine.

"Performer!" the girl finished. "He must do theater classes to become a junior performer!"

Minato and Ryoji never sighed so relieved in their lives.

"Phew… That was close. I mean…" the black-haired boy forced a smile. "Oh, boy! You guessed! That's too bad!" he then turned to his brother. "Sorry, Minato! I delated you!"

The Persona User shook a hand dismissively, his face clearly showing a lot of uneasiness.

"You don't have to be ashamed of that. I think it's pretty cool!" Fuuka said encouraging, before clapping her hands animatedly as an idea came to her. "Hey! You could show us something!"

Minato's face turned pale and he desperately shook his head.

"Oh… If you don't want…" Fuuka became a bit disappointed.

"It's nothing personal! He's just a bit shy!" Ryoji quickly commented giggling nervously. "I'm sure that after he gets used to you two, he'll happily teach you everything you want!"

Minato launched a shocked glare at his brother. Why was he promising it? He, of all people, knew better than anyone that Minato NEVER made theater classes and couldn't teach anything about it.

"That would be great!" Fuuka celebrated. "I'll be looking forward for that when the time comes!"

The blue-haired boy's answer was a forced smile that freaked the crap out of Fuuka and Akihiko.

"Yeah… just wait for that," Ryoji said with a worried grin, noticing the mess he had put Minato into. "When the time comes… Time… Time?"

The boy slapped his own forehead.

"Oh, Jesus Christ! Do any of you guys know what time is it?"

"Let me see…" Fuuka put a hand inside her pocket, took a cell phone and looked at the screen. "It's five fifty-six."

"Five fifty-six?!" Ryoji repeated shocked, while Minato's jaw dropped. "Is it that late already?!"

"What's wrong?" Akihiko asked, confused at the boys' reactions.

"We're super late!" the black-haired boy said exasperated and turned to Minato. "We have to go home now or Nyx will spank our butts until they fall over!"

Wasting no time, Ryoji grabbed his brother's hand and began running back home, dragging the Persona User behind him while yelling to Fuuka and Akihiko:

"It was a pleasure to meet you two! I hope we can talk again! Come home to play games or have a snack! Don't forget to ring the doorbell and clean the feet before you enter the house! Bye!"

In a question of seconds, the two boys became a black and blue blur disappearing in the distance.

"What a curious duo," Akihiko crossed his arms, staring amused at the two distant figures.

"Indeed, not the most normal people I've seen," Fuuka agreed. "Ryoji seems nice, though. He's very charismatic and it's very nice to talk with him. Minato, on other hand, is a bit…" the girl seemed unsure on how to finish the sentence.

"He's weird," the boy bluntly finished for her while turning around to leave. "I mean, he looks like a nice guy, but he barely said a single word during the whole conversation."

"I don't even remember if he even said anything," the blue-haired girl commented, also turning around to return home.

"And he always seems to be kind of… I don't know, it looks like he doesn't fit," Akihiko continued. "It becomes worse when we compare him to Ryoji, who's always cheerful and brings good energy. Minato is just so… savorless, gray and gloom," the boy scratched a cheek sheepishly. "His company isn't a very good one."

"I wouldn't say that, but…" Fuuka clearly agreed with her senpai's opinion, although a bit hesitant and even ashamed of admitting it. "I did feel something curious about him, though."

"What?" Akihiko turned to Fuuka.

"I'm not sure. I felt… something different in him."

"Something different?"

"I'm not sure of what, but it felt like something… powerful and… mysterious," the girl looked down thoughtful. "At the same time, there was also another thing that felt… dangerous. Even hostile and hard to control."

"Hostile and hard to control?" Akihiko raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know," the girl admitted embarrassed. "I just felt something. I have no idea of what or why, but it was there, in him."

Any person who didn't know Fuuka would probably dismiss it as her impression or an instant dislike for Minato, but Akihiko wasn't one of those people; he had known her for a long time and was aware that the girl had a 'sensibility' to… things. What exactly were those things? Apparently, anything related to Shadows, spiritual energy or psychic powers.

There was never a way to know in an instant of what she was talking about, but Akihiko and the others learned that, whenever Fuuka said she felt something, they should listen to her.

It became especially true when the first week of January ended and, for some mysterious reason, Fuuka's 'sensibility' became much more potent than ever.

"In that case, it may be wise to keep an eye on Minato," Akihiko concluded, turning to look at the direction the two boys went.

"Yes, but…"

"But?" the silver-haired boy looked at the girl with an intrigued expression.

"I didn't feel something only in Minato," Fuuka revealed insecure. "I also felt in Ryoji."

"In Ryoji?" Akihiko frowned. "What? The same thing or…"

The girl mused for a few seconds, before sighing disappointed and admitting:

"I'm not sure."

 **Meanwhile…**

"Come on, Minato!" Ryoji said exasperated, still mercilessly pulling his brother. "I can't even imagine what Nyx will do if we're late! Can you?!"

Minato couldn't answer; he was too busy trying to keep up with the other boy and avoid tripping and breaking his nose on the asphalt.

"I don't want to see her angry!" the black-haired boy loudly commented to himself. "She's so scary when she's angry!"

Truth be said, Ryoji and Minato practically never saw their mother and legal guardian angry, but the few times they did were enough to teach them that, if there was something they should never do, was unleash the fury of Nyx.

And if there was something that made her mad, it surely was them disobeying her.

"We don't have time! We don't have time!" Ryoji cried desperate. "She's going to be so-"

THUMP!

Ryoij and Minato hit something that suddenly left a store they were about to pass in front and fell backwards, both boys letting out a loud huff as they hit the walkway.

"Hey! Whatta hell?!" a loud, high pitched voice angrily screamed.

As Minato recovered from the fall and took a sitting position, he laid his eyes on what he hit and nearly let a scared screech out.

In front of him, stood an extremely weird creature made entirely of long, thin black arms, some of them holding weird looking pieces of metal that resembled swords. One of the creature's many hands held a blue mask that had two holes for the eyes and another one in the format of a straight line, made to represent the mouth, with an 'I' written on the forehead.

The creature's appearance on itself wouldn't be enough to tell what it was, as many demons, deities and even some angels had very striking or startling bodies, but that blue mask left no doubt about its identity.

That thing was a Shadow, and one of the biggest Minato ever saw in his life.

"What are ya doin'?! What's wrong with ya?!" the Shadow furiously vociferated at Minato and Ryoji, the latter still trying to recover. "Do ya wanna problem?! Do ya wanna find problem with me?! Well, ya found it, 'cause problem is mah surni… surnama… sirname… deh last name of mah name!"

Minato felt a drop of cold sweat running down his forehead. That Shadow wasn't only one of the biggest he ever saw, but also one of the stupidest.

"It was an accident!" Ryoji sat on the walkway glaring at the Shadow, Minato quickly going to his side help him get up. "Do you really think we would hit you on purpose?"

"Shuddup, ya stupid human!" the Shadow yelled angrily, his voice apparently coming from the mask it was holding. "Me know ya did it on purpose! All humans do is throw tons of shit on our faces and keep sayin' everywhere how yer kind is da best in da world!"

"What?!" Ryoji asked indignant.

"Deh humans think they're the biggest guys in da universe, but you only deh biggest DICKS in the history of universal shit!" the Shadow began to angrily hit his fists on the ground and shake the mask around. "Ya wanna control everything and ruin Arcana Magician's life!"

"Arcana Magician?" the black-haired boy asked tilting his head. "Isn't it from Nyx's tarot deck?"

"Me much better than any tarot deck!" the Shadow, whose name Minato and Ryoji discovered was Arcana Magician, yelled. "Me gotta deh powah! Ya gotta fear me!"

"The only thing to fear about him is how horribly he's murdering our language…" Ryoji lowly sneered to Minato, making the blue-haired boy giggle a bit.

"SHUDDUP STUPID HUMAN!" Arcana Magician furiously screamed, having heard the boy's mockery. "That's what me sayin' all this time! Humans suck, 'cause they wanna make the whole world their way! They think they deh best and don't do what Arcana Magician wants!"

The Shadow then pointed to the store he just left.

"Deh fagot that owns this store, for example! Me came here to get some donuts, but old man only said bullshit to Arcana Magician and that he doesn't sell it!"

Minato looked at the store's front and facepalmed.

How could he think they would sell donuts in a CLOTHES STORE?

"Man, this is a clothes store. Of course they don't have donuts here," Ryoji stated after also looking at the store and noticing the Shadow's stupidity.

"BUT ME WANNA DONUTS! IF ARCANA MAGICIAN WANTS DONUTS, THEN ARCANA MAGICIAN GETS DONUTS!" the Shadow angrily screamed and began hitting the mask's face on the walkway.

Both boys stared horrified at the scene, extremely disturbed to see someone who had no head hitting his own head on the ground.

Well, at least it explained why that thing was so idiot.

"If me wanna something, then deh world gotta do it!" the Shadow, whose mask was now slightly damaged, affirmed with a convicted tone.

"But it's a clothes store!" Ryoji pointed out again. "Why would they need to sell donuts if they don't work with it?"

"Why? Me tell ya why: 'cause I wanna donuts now and they gotta do what I want!"

"You want people to change out of a sudden just to please your own desires?!" the boy glared indignant at the Shadow. "That's ridiculously selfish!"

"I don't give a FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" Arcana Magician hummed. "And that fagot that runs deh store better do donuts for me soon, or me gonna put that store down!"

"You'll destroy the guy's store just because he doesn't have what you want?!" Ryoji glared even more indignant. "YOU are the biggest dick in the universe!"

Infuriated at hearing it, Arcana Magician let out a horrid scream, wiggled his arms around violently and began hitting the mask on the nearest light post. The sudden outrage deeply scared both Minato and Ryoji, who took many steps back.

"Me biggest dick?! Ya are deh biggest dick!" the Shadow stopped going nuts and pointed many accusing fingers at Ryoji. "Just 'cause ya are a human ya think to be better than Arcana Magician!"

"I don't think that!" the boy shot back irritated.

"Yes, ya do!" the creature retorted aggressively. "All humans think they better! They all do! Ya no exception!"

"I'm an exception and do you know why?" Ryoji crossed his arms and glared challenging at Arcana Magician. "Because I'm not human!"

"Not human?! BULLSHIT!" the Shadow yelled. "Ya look like a human, speak like a human, walk like human… Ya a human!"

"No, I'm not!" Ryoji argued.

"Yes, ya are!" Arcana Magician argued back. "I bet ya stink like human too!"

Determined to prove his point, Arcana Magician approached his mask to Ryoji and began moving it up and down, close to the boy's face, while a keen sniffing sound came from it.

"How can you smell me if you don't have a nose?" the black-haired boy asked confused.

The Shadow simply ignored the question and continued sniffing.

"See? Me told ya! Ya smell like putrid, stupid… Huh?"

Smelling something that seemed extremely out of place, Arcana Magician approached his mask even closer to Ryoji and began sniffing faster.

"Wait a minute! Whatta hell is that?! Me feel the smell of a Shadow in deh human kid!" he claimed sniffing a bit more. "And me feelin' something akin to a god!"

The Shadow stopped sniffing, took a few steps back, pointed its mask at Ryoji and asked with an intrigued and irritated voice:

"Whatta hell are ya?!"

"I'll tell you what I am!" the boy said challenging, stuffing his chest with air and raising his chin pridefully. "I'm Ryoji Mochizuki, one of Nyx's sons!"

"SON OF A GODDESS?!" Arcana Magician stepped back, wiggled its arms violently and let out a disgusted screech. "Uuuuugh! Ya just as bad as humans! Yer kind is full of themselves 'cause they have the blood of gods or deities or whatever else is in the higher plane!"

"But Shadows are of full of themselves too," Ryoji deadpanned.

"But we deh best! We don't need gods or deities or whatever else to have dah powah! We need just chaos and destruction and death and destruction and powah and destruction and killin' and destruction and… Did me say destruction already?" Arcana Magician scratched his mask thoughtful, but quickly shook it dismissively. "If me haven't, then destruction too!"

It was official: that was, without a doubt, the stupidest Shadow Minato ever saw in his life.

Which meant A LOT, since all Shadows were twisted to the extreme.

"And 'bout ya?! Ya son of a god too?!" Arcana Magician suddenly pointed his mask to Minato and got dangerously close to him, forcing the boy to take a few steps back.

The Shadow began moving the mask up and down, close to Minato's face, making the same sniffing sounds as before.

"Huh… Huh… Ah… Uh?" Arcana Magician flinched for a moment, then began sniffing again. "What… Deh smell… Deh smell of that brat… Is like…"

If the Shadow had any eyes, they would surely have jumped out of their orbits as he recognized the smell he felt coming from Minato.

"A PERSONA USEEEEEEEEEEER?!" Arcana Magician screamed in horror, getting away from the little boy like he was radioactive. "This even worse than anything else! Ugh! Me so disgusted! DISGUSTED!"

"Hey! What are you talking about?!" Ryoji inquired the Shadow, angry for Minato being offended. "He's the one that should be disgusted!"

"What YA talkin' 'bout?!" Arcana Magician screamed furious. "That Shadow Enslaver came to make Arcana Magician his maid! Force Shadows do stinky thingamajigs! Turn our lives a mountain of trash!"

Indignant at all the false accusations, Minato glared at the Shadow and got ready to argue.

"SHUDDUP!" the creature said before the boy had any chance to mutter a single word and violently hit him on the side using one of its many hands, launching Minato against the store's wall.

The attack was so sudden Minato didn't have time to put his hands in front of him to soft the impact, which made him hit his forehead on the wall. A sharp pain coursed through the boy's head and made him weakly fall to his knees covering the injured part with both hands.

"Minato!" Ryoji yelled worried and ran to his brother's side, kneeling close to him and trying to check the wound.

"See?! Me powerful! Ya trash! Me can destroy ya without gods or deities!" Arcana Magician proudly stated, hitting his own mask with a punch for some unknown reason.

"You jerk! He didn't do anything!" the Persona User's brother angrily shouted at the Shadow, defensively pulling Minato closer to him.

"Yeah! He did! HE WAS BORN!" the vile creature yelled. "Persona Users should die in the birth! Ya know why?! 'Cause they trash! TRAAAAAAAAAAASH!"

Despite all the shouts, yells and insults thrown everywhere, it was possible to hear someone sobbing.

"Ha! Ya cryin'?! Ya better cry, ya giant crybaby!" Arcana Magician laughed evilly, noticing the Persona User's shoulders quickly moving up and down while the sobbing became louder. "Cryin' is the only thing ya can do! Ya know why?! 'Cause ya are trash!"

"No, he isn't!" Ryoji yelled furious.

"YES, HE IS!" the Shadow insisted. "NOBODY LIKES PERSONA USERS! NOBODY LIKES HIM!"

"That's not true!" the boy wrapped his arms around his crying brother.

"It is! Gods, demons, angels, humans, Shadows, Avatars… Doesn't matter! Everyone hates Persona Users!" Arcana Magician laughed maniacally and pointed a mocking finger at Minato. "Ya never gonna find happiness! Ya never gonna have friends! Ya gonna be trash for all yer life! YA GONNA DIE ALONE, YA STUPID SHADOW ENSLAVER!"

Feeling satisfied, Arcana Magician turned around and walked away, wiggling his arms agitated, shaking his mask like a drugged person and cackling loudly, leaving behind an extremely irate Ryoji and a sobbing Minato with a bleeding wound on his forehead.

When the creature was a few meters away from the boys, he turned around, mockingly waved a hand at them and yelled:

"HAVE A ROTTEN DAY, YA PIECES OF SHIT! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

 **Back at Nyx's house…**

"Where are those two?!" Nyx angrily tapped a foot and looked at the clock for the eighth time. "I told them to come back at six and it's already six twenty!"

Just as she finished her sentence, the goddess heard the door opening and the sound of steps.

"Those two are troubled," Nyx immediately went after the two boys, mentally preparing her scolding. "Where were you?! I was worried as…"

Nyx froze in horror at the scene in front of her.

Just a few steps away from the door stood a worried Ryoji holding the hand of a crying Minato with a wound on his forehead that made a thin line of blood fall all the way to his chin and drip on the floor.

"Oh, my God! What happened?!" the goddess forgot all the anger in less than a second and ran to the injured boy, checking his wound with worried eyes.

"It was a Shadow!" Ryoji told, his voice a mix of anger and indignancy. "He appeared from nowhere, pushed Minato against a wall and said lots of horrible things to him!"

"I can't believe this… We just moved to get…" Nyx shook her head to interrupt herself, noticing it wasn't the time to worry about that. "Dear, did he harm you anywhere else?"

Minato didn't answer.

"This isn't too bad, but we have to stop the bleeding," the goddess said slightly relieved to see the wound wasn't very serious. "Ryoji, go to my room and get…"

Before Nyx could finish her sentence, Minato tightly hugged her and began crying desperately, countless tears falling from his eyes and wetting the goddess's shirt.

"Shh… It's okay. Everything is okay now," Nyx gently wrapped her arms around the boy and kissed his cheek. "I'm here. You're safe."

The boy continued crying.

"Minato, don't cry!" Ryoji ran to his brother and enveloped him in a tight hug. "That horrible Shadow won't hurt you anymore! Nyx and I are here to protect you and we'll kick the ass of that fiend!"

Enveloped by the warmth of his family's love, Minato calmed down a bit and stopped sobbing, but tears continued falling from his eyes.

"Minato, I don't know what that Shadow told you, but I want you to remember one thing," Nyx gently held the boy's face with both hands and made him look at her, a serious expression in her face. "Never believe any of the horrible things anyone tells you, especially the Shadows. They don't know what a sweet, intelligent and caring boy you are."

"Yes! You're the best!" Ryoji nodded vehemently with a wide smile. "You always got the highest scores in class, learned everything so fast and always protect me!"

"Exactly! That's exactly what Ryoji said!" the night goddess affirmed. "You're so special, so full of talents and hardworking! If people can't see all your qualities, then it's their loss!" she enveloped him in her arms again. "But never, EVER, forget who you really are, Minato. No matter how much people insult or harm you, never believe in them. I'm here with you and so is Ryoji. Nobody will hurt you anymore, so don't cry."

He wasn't crying because of the wound in his forehead; he wasn't crying because of the horrible words he heard; he wasn't crying because he couldn't make friends like Ryoji, be popular, join clubs or walk in the street without anyone giving him a weird glare.

He was crying because it was happening again.

He had just moved and it was happening again.

In that town, in Tokyo, in any other place they went before, the story was always the same.

Why it had to be like that?

 **Later that night…**

Nyx mentally slapped herself while she lighted the cigarette.

More than once, the goddess promised herself and her boys that she would stop smoking and once again, she broke that promise.

Although it didn't make up for it being her fourth cigarette in less than two hours, at least she wasn't drinking. Much before, when they still lived in Tokyo, she would spend whole nights drowning in beer or wine and smoking more than any human could resist, in unhealthy attempts to alleviate stress.

Minato and Ryoji caught her during her unsavory habit many times and forced her to promise she would stop doing it, to which Nyx complied. Much to the boys' chagrin, she never managed to keep her word for very long and they eventually began inspecting the goddess from time to time, trying to make sure she wouldn't repeat it.

The memory of the promise she broke again pained her heart, but she couldn't find anything else to help calm her down and the boys were already asleep, so, even if she wasn't very proud of it, Nyx took the chance to get the box of cigarettes she left in her purse for a long time and enjoy her 'poison' without Minato or Ryoji to scold her.

Talking about them, Minato didn't eat dinner (it was Yakisoba, by the way) and went to sleep much earlier than he usually did, only wanting to sleep and forget that day while he could, knowing everything that happened was bound to repeat at some time, sooner or later. Without his brother, Ryoji had no reason to stay up until late and decided to finish his day as well.

Now, it was just Nyx, her thoughts, the darkness of night and her cigarettes.

"Heavens, we just moved and it happened," the goddess pinched between her eyes. "I can't understand what's wrong with those people! Minato is just a child and they treat him like he's a monster or something worse!"

Irritated, Nyx inhaled some more of her cigarette, then threw it to the side.

"It's all my fault…" she covered her face with both hands. "If I wasn't so blind to all the evil I was causing, this wouldn't be happening now. All the pain he's suffering is because I noticed my mistakes too late. I destroyed his life… And…"

With a sigh, Nyx leaned against the chair and let her arms fall, staring at the ceiling with a pained expression. She didn't know what to do; the only thing she wanted was to give Minato a good life after everything he was forced to endure, but she was failing again.

Even as the Goddess of Night, Nyx had limitations; there were some things, as few as they were, that neither her knew how to do and, much to her dismay, making Minato happy seemed to be one of them.

What should she do then? The only thing that came to her mind was something Nyx never thought she would resort to, even more because of her former nature before she became Minato and Ryoji's mother.

She prayed.

"Great Will, I know I have no right to ask you anything, especially after what I did, but please… Please, listen to my plea," Nyx felt her heart heavy. "My little Minato has suffered so much already. He deserves a good life more than many people in this world, but I can't give it to him. The only thing I had to do was make sure he would live happily and I can't do it!"

Nyx had to hold the tears that threatened to fall.

"Please… please, help him. Give him the strength he needs to face all the hardships to come. Enlighten him. Watch over him. Please…" she closed her eyes and let a solitary tear roll down her face. "If not for me, then for him."

Taking a deep breath, the goddess ran a hand on her hair and looked at the clock. It was eleven forty, just twenty minutes before the Dark Hour started.

With her heart still heavy and nothing else to do, Nyx decided to follow her boys' example and went to bed.

 **Meanwhile…**

The green, eerie tower's intimidating size contrasted with all the other buildings around it, looking like a tenebrous spike made of concrete stuck in the ground and pointing its tip menacingly against the moon.

Inside the highest floor of that tower, three figures bowed to a fourth one that sat on a fancy chair behind a large black table made of wood.

"The preparations are finished and the Needles are ready," the figure in the middle, the tallest and oldest of the three, said calmly. "We just wait for your order, Mr. President."

"Excellent," the figure sitting on the chair let out a sinister laugh. "Call that useless walking sack of pus and tell him to get you three a transport. Go to Port Island and activate the first Needle during the Dark Hour of the next full moon."

The three figures nodded and turned to leave.

"However…"

They stopped in place and looked at the president.

"Before you leave, I would like to remember you three that I'm NOT accepting more failures," he said menacingly. "Your mistakes already cost me precious time and resources. If you don't have success after you leave this place…"

He leaned on the table and threatened with an eerie tone:

"Then you better not even dare to show your faces here again."

The two smaller figures to the left and the right flinched for a moment, but the one in the middle just bowed politely and assured:

"We won't fail you again, Mr. President."

"Good," the president leaned his back on the chair again. "Now stop wasting my time and go at once."

The three figures nodded and left the room as quickly as possible. Once alone, the president turned his chair to the window at his right and looked the buildings illuminated by the moonlight with a wide grin.

"The time is coming. All the pieces are positioned and the Needles are ready."

He let out a deep, satisfied sigh.

"I'll end what was left unfinished and fulfill our prophecy. Soon, the old world will give place…" his smile turned extremely evil. "To a new era. Ahahahahahaha!"

 **To be continued…**

 _ **Author note:**_ _I'm not sure which gender this story fits into, so I chose what I felt was right. If someone knows a gender more fitting for this story, feel free to leave a suggestion or PM me._

 _Aside from this short note, the only thing I have left to say is thank you very much for using your time to read my story and I hope it was worth it._

 _See you later!_


	2. Looking for Light in a World of Shadows

_I'm still alive and I haven't given up on this story!_

 _I just need to organize my life a bit better… Well, better late than never, right?_

 _Right?_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ _Persona and anything related don't belong to me. It's all property of Atlus. Any other franchise or character mentioned in this story also don't belong to me._

 **The Little Great Seal**

 **Chapter 2: Looking for Light in a World of Shadows**

At first, it was only darkness. Deep, cold and lonely darkness filled with uncomfortable silence. However, unlike the previous time, the darkness didn't exist for a lack of light or anything around him.

No, that time, it was because his eyes were closed.

Noticing that, Minato tried to open them, but, for whatever the reason, they seemed to resist his will, like he was trying to wake up from a very deep sleep that lasted for much, much time.

"Have no hurry," a calm and strangely familiar voice suddenly said. "It's the first time you awake directly in this place and you're still young. Feeling drowsy is completely normal."

It could be normal, but hearing that voice filled Minato with an urge to open his eyes.

"Now, calm down and relax," the same voice instructed as the boy began to groan and squirm while trying to open his eyes that seemed to be glued. "Take a deep breath and let this place's energy fill your mind."

As weird as those instructions sounded, they were said in such a confident and reassuring tone Minato immediately followed them without a second thought.

He stopped moving, took a deep breath and tried to relax. The boy wasn't totally sure of what 'let this place's energy fill your mind' was or how to do that, but his eyes suddenly feeling a lot lighter and easier to open was probably a sign that he managed to do that.

As his eyes slowly opened, a unique tone of blue and a peculiar figure welcomed his blurred sight.

"Good. Very good," the voice complimented, although the boy wasn't sure of what it was complimenting.

It was only after a few blinks that Minato's blurred vision went back to normal and he finally saw the figure in front of him in full details. Not that he really needed to do that to know who it was, though, as his voice was unmistakable.

"It hasn't been very long since your last visit, but seeing you here again surely fills me with great satisfaction," the long-nosed man said in a courteous tone as he looked at the little boy from the other side of the table.

Only then Minato noticed that he wasn't laying on his bed anymore, but instead, sitting on the same chair he sat the last time he and that odd man talked.

In greater detail, in that same weird bluish club that appeared out of nowhere during the dream he had while going to Port Island.

…

Port Island! That was the name of the place he, Ryoji and Nyx moved to! How could he forget such an easy name?

"I apologize for bringing you here so suddenly and without warning, but events that will happen in the nearby future convinced me to do so," the man said with an apologetical tone.

The part of 'events that will happen in the nearby future' caught Minato off guard and made him stare a bit worried at the man.

"Oh, but before we talk about that, I believe you have questions to make. The ones you probably want to make first are who I am, what is this place and what you're doing here, correct?" the man suddenly asked.

Minato nodded. At first, he was a bit surprised the man guessed what he wanted to ask, but quickly concluded those were some of the most obvious questions to make to a total stranger who suddenly started talking to him in a place that didn't look like anything he ever saw in his life and put the surprise aside as fast as it came.

"Very well. Let's start again from the beginning and the way I should have done before," the long-nosed man said in a slightly playful tone and bowed gently. "Welcome to the Velvet Room, a special place that exists between consciousness and unconsciousness, reality and imagination. My name is Igor, master and resident of this place, responsible for offering you all the services the Velvet Room can give to those who have signed a contract."

Minato felt a drop of cold sweat running down the back of his head. It surely answered his questions, but also raised tons of other ones, like…

Why on Earth such a place looked like a club?

"There are more residents that live in this place and will help with everything the Velvet Room can offer to you like me. Unfortunately, most of them, more specifically my main assistants, aren't here right now and the other two are busy with their own occupations, so I'll have to introduce them later," the man, who Minato now knew was called Igor, continued explaining, apparently unaware of the boy's expression growing more and more suspicious.

Emphasis on 'apparently'.

"The contract I mentioned isn't necessarily an actual contract, made of paper and signed by someone. It's just a denomination given to something very special that has happened to a person that directs them to a great destiny and grants access to the Velvet Room."

Something very special? Could Igor be talking about…

…

Minato tried to think on something but failed. There were too many things that happened in his life that could be said 'contract'.

His parents' death, Nyx's adoption, the awakening of his Persona, the awakening of his second Persona… The possibilities were infinite.

"The Velvet Room has many purposes, but all of them can be summarized in two categories. The first, giving assistance to said person during their journeys towards the great destiny that awaits them. The second, everything related to Personas."

Minato's eyes went wide open in surprise.

Did he say… Personas?

"By the way, you have more than one Persona, right?"

Minato snapped out of his surprise and nodded.

"Please, summon them," Igor asked.

The blue-haired boy began fidgeting nervously on his chair. Summoning one Persona was usually enough to cause him a lot of problems but summoning both would be outright stupid.

One could even say it was suicide.

"Fear nothing, my good boy. I know the problems you have with your second Persona and ensure you he'll be under control here," Igor calmly promised.

The statement wasn't enough to make Minato feel much more confident that summoning his second Persona wouldn't turn the whole place into a giant mess of destroyed furniture, but if Igor was the master of that place, managed to do so many magical, unexplainable things and knew about Personas AND his 'amicable' second Persona, then he could probably trust him, right?

…

Well, if he was wrong, then he could blame Igor for everything, so…

Taking a deep breath and relaxing as much as he could, Minato gently closed his eyes and let the energy inside him flow freely. A bluish light enveloped the boy as a mass of brilliant energy formed behind him and slowly gained form.

A few seconds later, a figure with metallic shine, white mechanical arms and legs, a light-blue body with a strange sphere in its abdomen, black face, red eyes and white hair holding a large, silver lyre appeared, floating in the air until delicately touching the floor of the Velvet Room with its feet.

That mysterious figure was Minato's first and, consequently, original Persona, a silent, gentle being known as Orpheus, the master of strings.

Why was he called Orpheus and the master of strings? That was a question neither Minato, his own creator, knew the answer for. In fact, the name simply popped up in his mind when the Persona was summoned for the first time.

Being more precise, it was Orpheus who told him his name. The young boy could remember his words like they were said the day before.

" _Thou art I… And I am thou… From the sea of thy soul I cometh… I am Orpheus, master of strings…"_

After the Persona fully materialized, Igor took a careful glance at its form from up to down, like he was analyzing it. After a few looks, he put a hand on his chin, closed his eyes and nodded.

"Just like I thought, it's a very powerful Persona, although its full potential hasn't been achieved yet. Not that it's a reason to be ashamed of, though. It just shows that you still got a long way to go, which means you can reach lengths and achievements that surpass my expectations."

A very powerful Persona? Really?

Minato never thought he was weak (his fire techniques were one of the many reasons Nyx forbid her son of summoning Orpheus inside their house, after all), but he also never thought he was so powerful as Igor seemed to be saying he was.

Especially when compared to HIM.

"Now, there's only one left," Igor suddenly remembered with a gentle tone.

Although still unsure if it would be a good idea, Minato decided to trust in Igor's promise that his second Persona would be under control in that place and let its energy flow freely in his body.

However, as soon as he did it, an intense power fueled by never ending fury began running through his veins, causing a headache and making Minato immediately regret his actions. He even tried to hold the Persona back, but it was already too late, and a mass of dark energy began materializing behind him.

The mass of energy slowly transformed into a tall, slender figure holding a sword and wearing white gloves, a belt with a golden circle with a skull sculpted on it and what seemed to be long, thin white boots covering its feetless legs. On his head he had two strange pieces of steel, one on the top that had two black circles with golden borders giving the impression of eyes and an upper jaw with sharp teeth and the other covering its chin, looking like the lower jaw. Eight metallic plates shaped like coffins floated around him, connected by chains on its shoulders.

The menacing figure let out an enraged roar, slashed the sword in the air aimlessly a few times and landed on the ground with extreme force, breaking the floor under its feet. It glanced around a few times, huffing like a furious animal, until laying eyes on Igor and taking battle stance.

Feeling his Persona's aggressiveness increasing, Minato tried his best to ignore the sharp pain in the back of his head and concentrated as much as possible to keep it under control.

Fortunately, he managed to do it and even felt it was considerably easier than any previous time, the Persona's rage and his pain reducing greatly, although not completely.

"Another very powerful Persona with a lot of room for improvement as well," Igor said after taking a careful look at the figure staring at him with its cold, emotionless 'eyes' and a boiling, but controlled killing intent. "In fact, I would even dare to say it's too powerful for your current state.

The long-nosed man still had a smile in his face, but Minato could notice a slight sign of worry in his eyes.

"It wasn't created under natural circumstances. In fact, the most correct thing to say is that it's creation was forced," Igor said with a serious tone.

Minato stared down with a sad expression, being careful not to lose control over his Persona.

Igor was right; that Persona wasn't created under normal circumstances. While Orpheus one day appeared before him in his mind and offered his loyalty, that other figure appeared from nowhere, without warning, presentation or even asking permission to appear.

It simply summoned itself and laid waste to its surroundings with powerful Curse spells and destroying everything in its reach, nearly killing five children and one of his former teachers in the process.

The children were harassing Ryoji for being too popular with the girls, Minato was just trying to defend him and he had little to no control over that Persona, but nobody seemed to care about those details and the poor boy had to spend the rest of his days in Tokyo being seem as some kind of monster by the whole school.

Why that Persona was so aggressive, why he couldn't control it properly or what part of his mind it could possibly be were questions that Minato wasn't sure of the answers, despite having a few suspicions, but two things about that being he knew very well:

Its name was Thanatos and it loved to fight.

"Personas are manifestations of one's heart and mind, physical incarnations of your personality and are born from the most varied sources and reasons," Igor suddenly explained out of a sudden. "They can be either representations of good things or your darkest sides."

That much Minato knew; Nyx explained it lots of times for the most varied reasons, which made him lose some of the interest in the conversation.

"The Persona called Orpheus was created mostly from your personality and values, thus why it resembles you not only physically, but also in its behavior."

That Minato also knew, although Orpheus was a bit too much of a good Samaritan for his taste. It would try to help anyone in need near him even if that wasn't the original reason he was summoned, which led to some… Embarrassing situations.

What made it even worse was the fact that Orpheus was Minato in a certain way, which meant he was embarrassing himself in the end.

"The Persona known as Thanatos, though, has a different origin and reason to exist. It was created under a situation of extreme stress that forced your soul to expel the overflowing emotions into another body," Igor proceeded, apparently unaware of the boy's expression growing slightly bored.

That Minato also knew; considering Thanatos wild behavior and endless furious will of destruction, it was probably born from the boiling rage he felt when the children from his previous school bullied Ryoji.

"An origin and reason that go way beyond your expectations."

The boy's slightly bored face turned into a considerably surprised one as Igor said those words.

What was he implying with that?

"Oh, my… But look at the time," the long-nosed man suddenly announced looking up. "I got so distracted by our talk I didn't notice how fast time was passing."

It was more of a monologue than a talk, but…

"I know you still have questions and I would love to continue our conversation, but we're out of time. You must return to your world," Igor politely said. "However, this won't be the last time we meet. In fact, this was only one of the many more times we'll see each other."

One of the many? What did it mean? How could he possibly know that? And what were the services related to Personas he never explained? Or the great destiny he talked about earlier?

Minato tried to voice at least one of those questions, but the man and the club began disappearing before he had the chance.

"I eagerly wait for your next visit," Igor politely said as his figure slowly fazed away, leaving only a bright light behind.

…

"Minato! Hey, Minato! Wake up! Wake up!" the blue-haired boy heard Ryoji's excited voice as he felt his body moving up and down. "Come on! Wake up! Wake up!"

A bit unwillingly, Minato slowly opened his eyes and saw his brother's face just a few inches away from his. If that wasn't a relatively common event in Nyx's residence, he would surely have jumped from the sudden proximity.

"Come on! Get up! Get up!" Ryoji playfully ordered jumping on the bed, making Minato's body move up and down again. "Do you know which day is today?"

The day when they slept until ten in the morning?

"It's Sunday!"

Which meant it was the day they slept until ten in the morning.

"Hey! Don't sleep again!" Ryoji complained jumping on the bed again when he noticed Minato threatened to close his eyes and return to the sweet land of dreams. "Today, we have something very important to do!"

What could possibly be more important than resting?

"Tomorrow we start school, so Nyx said we would go buy everything to get ready!"

Oh, yes… That…

"Ryoji, is Minato up already?" Nyx suddenly appeared in the door.

"No, he's nearly sleeping again!" Ryoji said turning to the goddess as his brother's eyes began to slowly close.

"No, no, no, little mister! It's time to get up," the night goddess walked to the side of the bed and made Minato sit on his mattress. "I know you had a hard time yesterday, but you can't stay on the bed the whole day because of that."

But he didn't want to stay in bed because of that. He wanted to stay in bed because it was Sunday! Was it so hard to understand?!

"Tomorrow you start school and you can't go unprepared. That's why we're going to buy everything you'll need today. So, get up!" Nyx said with a motherly authoritarian tone.

Begrudgingly and holding back an irritated groan, Minato forced himself to get out of bed and yawned loudly.

"Good. Now, change your clothes and go eat breakfast. It's already eight in the morning and if we take too long to go, the mall will get too crowded," Nyx announced with a nod, then turned around and left the room.

"You better hurry, Minato! The longer we take to go, the longer we take to get ready to go to school make new friends!" Ryoji exclaimed pumping a fist in the air and going after his mother.

Minato raised an eyebrow, confused at his brother's logic process.

Exactly how the time they took to go to the mall buy what they needed would affect when they would go to school? The classes only started on Monday one way or another, right?

An even better question: that place had a mall? Where?

 _ **A bit later…**_

Still a bit drowsy, Minato walked a few steps behind Nyx and Ryoji, lazily blinking and feeling his body complaining about having to get up before ten during a Sunday. Even if he went to bed earlier than he usually did during Saturdays, he was so used to waking up later in these marvelous days free of responsibilities that being forced away from his comfy blankets nearly felt like an insult to his routine.

And Minato LOVED his routine.

Ryoji, on other hand, seemed extremely excited to see everything that seemingly peaceful place known as Port Island had to offer, unaware or simply ignoring the sacred ritual of 'waking after ten in the morning'.

"Alright, boys. Let's use this quick trip to the mall as an opportunity to learn about your new home!" Nyx said with a joyful tone. "After all, you'll have to go to school on your own, so pay attention to everything."

"Okay!" Ryoji said enthusiastically and began looking to all sides, trying to absorb as much as possible of his surroundings.

Minato was still sleepy, though, and ended not paying much attention to where he was going, which nearly made him trip a few times.

"Come on, Minato! Show some enthusiasm! Fill yourself with energy!" the boy suddenly heard Nyx saying to him. "Pump up! Don't look down! The only way to face life is looking straight in its eyes!"

That wasn't exactly true, but she was right about one thing:

He surely should try to find some energy. Otherwise, he would be lying face planted on the walkway sooner or later.

Letting out a loud yawn and lazily stretching his arms, Minato forced his mind to concentrate on his surroundings despite how reluctant it was to work at the time and noticed he couldn't recognize anything around him.

The streets, the houses, the stores… Nothing seemed familiar and it made him dart his eyes everywhere with a faint glimpse of worry in them.

Nothing seeming familiar was absolutely nothing special by itself; it was another city totally different from the agitated Tokyo he was used to, after all. However, that wasn't the only reason the unfamiliarity of the place made him so worried.

That place he was, whatever or wherever it was, didn't even seem like any of the streets near his house.

"That's why I told you to pay attention to everything," Nyx said with a slightly annoyed tone, looking at Minato's scared expression and shaking her head disapproving. "Now, you don't have any idea of where we are or how we got here, do you?"

The blue-haired boy's only reaction was to give his adoptive mother an awkward smile.

"Minato, I know things have been very difficult for you lately and everything is changing too fast for your liking, but life is all about facing challenges and changes," Nyx said with a gentle, but also firm voice. "Not everything will be the way you want. Even if you do everything you can, sacrifice a lot, work overtime and even give your soul…"

Nyx suddenly stopped, making both boys stop as well and look puzzled at her.

For some reason, the night goddess's face suddenly had a pained expression, her features contorting into a frown.

"Nyx?" Ryoji suddenly asked with his innocent voice, making the deity snap out of her thoughts.

"S-sorry… Like I was saying," Nyx tried to quickly recover composure. "even if you do all that, there's still a chance that things won't work your way. That's why it's so important to always face life with determination and courage."

She then kneeled and gently put a hand on Minato's cheek.

"Two things you have more than many people, even if you yourself haven't noticed yet," Nyx smiled warmly.

"Yes! That's right!" Ryoji agreed grabbing his brother's hand. "And we're here to help you notice that! No matter how much time it takes, we'll show you how awesome you truly are!"

Minato felt a bit awkward at all the sudden fluff and motivational stuff that Nyx and Ryoji began talking about but managed to give them a small smile.

Even if it all seemed a bit too much for the situation, it was still nice to know he would always have his family to give him support. Even more, to know there were people who really cared about him in that world that despised Persona Users.

"Now, let's go to the mall!" Ryoji pumped a fist in the air and dashed away, dragging Minato with him. "There's no time to waste! We're on the threshold of an amazing adventure! Showtime!"

"Hey! Ryoji! Minato!" Nyx shouted running after the two boys. "You two come back here immediately! You don't know where the station is and will get lost!"

 _ **Meanwhile…**_

"Halt!" the tall, muscular guard wearing a mask with an XI on its forehead loudly announced blocking the large black door with a spear before taking a better look at who approached and groaning annoyed. "Oh, it's you…"

"M-move aside! I h-have important news for the p-president!" the small creature that seemed like a black puddle with two arms and a mask with an IX sticking out weakly growled.

"Again? Better be good news this time. His mood is horrible today," the guard stepped aside, allowing the small creature to open the door and enter the large room.

On the other side of the place, the sinister figure of the president sitting on his chair observed the small Shadow approaching apprehensively, his eyes glowing a menacing red and always on the small creature getting nearer.

"A-ah! Mr. President! H-how are you?! You look very good today! Have you done something to your hair?!" the puddle-like Shadow nervously said getting closer to his superior, the door behind him being closed by the guard. "Or is it your suit?! Is that a new one?! Looks very good! Deep purple always…"

"Enough with the nonsense," the president said in a low, threatening voice.

"Eek!" the small Shadow shuddered and silenced himself.

"What brings you here? Weren't you supposed to be working on the Needles?" the president asked leaning on the table.

"Y-yes! And I was working on the Needles like you ordered, sir! I just had to interrupt the work to…" the Shadow's voice faltered. "Bring you some news about the project…"

"Good news this time, I presume," the president growled.

Saying the small puddle Shadow became nervous wouldn't be enough to describe his state of spirit.

"Hehehe… N-not exactly…" the creature nervously scratched the side of his mask. "You see, we were working on the Needles, charging them with energy, doing aaaaaall the stuff needed to ensure they would work just as perfectly and securely as you ordered, when we discovered a little, tiny, NEARLY unimportant problem. B-but it wasn't anything too serious! It was only something simple to solve! I m-mean, we're doing our best to…"

The president growled menacingly, giving the Shadow a very clear sign that he should start being more direct if he didn't want to get hurt.

"T-ten of the N-Needles couldn't stand the energy charged into them a-and were destroyed…" the Shadow weakly revealed, covering his mask with both hands in a defensive manner.

" **WHAT?!"** the president vociferated getting up.

"W-we don't know what happened!" the small Shadow's voice trembled as he moved away from his superior. "The first two Needles are working normally, and we used the same projects to make the others! T-that shouldn't have happened!"

"IT DEFINITELY SHOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED!" the menacing figure of the president furiously slammed both hands on the table as a purple cloud of energy formed around him.

"I'm so sorry, your Maliciousness!" the Shadow's whole body (if what he had could be considered a body) began trembling from fear. "We're doing our best to discover what went wrong!"

"IF YOU'RE DOING YOUR BEST TO DISCOVER WHAT WENT WRONG, THEN WHY ARE YOU HERE LOSING TIME BLABBERING INSTEAD OF WORKING ON THE NEEDLES?!" the purple cloud of energy around the president grew bigger.

"T-the laboratory lacks enough materials to build new Needles! We need more resources to…"

"MORE?! YOU NEED MORE?!"

The small Shadow backed away until he hit the door, regretting his choice of words.

"I ALREADY WASTED A LOT WITH THE MISTAKES OF THOSE FOUR IDIOTS AND NOW I HAVE TO PAY FOR YOUR STUPIDITY TOO?!" the president's once relatively human voice turned into a distorted, bestial sound. "IF YOU WEREN'T NEEDED FOR THE PROJECT, I WOULD…!"

Completely terrified by what he was seeing, the small Shadow covered his mask with both hands and waited for the worst, although not very sure of what that 'worst' would be since the president had already used the most varied library of skills to punish him for previous mistakes.

Agydine, Bufudyne, Ziodyne, Maeigaon, Crazed Slash, Megidolaon… The list went on and on.

There was only one thing he was totally certain about:

Whatever the tyrannical president of the Shadow Society would do to him, it would be something that he would feel until the day he died.

He was so certain of that he felt genuinely confused when several seconds passed and he still felt nothing aside from his fear.

"Uh…?" the Shadow carefully took a hand from his mask and noticed the president had sat again on his chair, facepalming and shaking his head in a disapproving manner. "Mr. President…?"

"The only reason I won't do anything to you is because you're still needed to finish the Needles Project and we don't have time to waste," the menacing figure said with his former voice. "I'll order someone to send you all the materials to make more Needles, but I swear for everything that's most sacred, if you screw up AGAIN, I will personally go to the laboratory and stomp you until you become nothing more than a miserable stain on the floor!"

"Ugh! I… I thank you, Mr. President! I won't disappoint you again!" the Shadow bowed many times, then turned around, opened the door and left as quickly as he could.

Feeling his blood still boiling from rage, the president slammed his right hand on the table and let out a very long and irritated growl.

If it was another situation, he wouldn't have let one of his subordinates leave unpunished after screwing up something so big, but that occasion was a totally different one from any other he faced before.

Ten of the twelve Needles were destroyed, leaving only two operational. The little Shadow was the most skilled to build those machines, so leaving him injured or disabled when the time to activate the third one was so close would be harmful not only for the Shadow himself, but for the entire operation.

Because of that, as much as he hated to do it, he would have to let the pathetic creature live another day.

 _RIIIING! RIIIING!_

"What now?!" the president angrily took a quick look at the number calling him before grabbing the telephone on his table and putting it on his ear. "It better be something important, colonel!"

" _We have a problem, Mr. President,"_ the voice on the other side of the phone nervously began. _"We… lost the target."_

"YOU LOST HER?!"

" _The target's signal disappeared two miles away from the last spot we detected her three minutes ago. We'll send Eagles to search the area, but…"_

"Listen well and keep it in your mind, colonel," the president said menacingly. "No matter the cost, find, capture and destroy that thing. I don't even care how. Just do it!"

" _Yes, Mr. President! As you…"_

The president slammed the phone back on its base without letting the colonel finish.

"First, the useless poor excuse of a living being fails to do something as simple as killing that bastard running the group, then those three idiots made me search the entire Kamakura for no reason. Now, that braindead imbecile destroyed the Needles and the sentient pile of trash is freely walking around out of our radars! WHAT ELSE CAN GO WRONG NOW?!"

Despite the morning sky being a clear blue, the aura surrounding the dreadful headquarters of the Shadow Corporation never felt darker.

Especially in the last floor, where the presidential room was.

 _ **Far away from there…**_

Minato knew Ryoji was very excitable but couldn't help feeling a bit amused at how magnified he seemed to be for simply riding that monorail.

There were lots of monorails in Tokyo and they always used them to get to school, so he failed to understand why his brother was so impressed and interested in everything.

Sure, that monorail wasn't the same monorail they used in their previous home town and the places they were passing through were very different from the extremely urban sights of Tokyo, but they were still just taking a monorail to go somewhere else, which was the only thing that really mattered.

Why and how Ryoji found so much excitement in something so trivial like that was something Minato always had a hard time understanding.

Although he also always felt a bit jealous of that.

" _Last stop, Iwatodai Station. Passengers, please leave by the left side of the vehicle,"_ a mechanical voice suddenly spoke in the cabin.

"Ah! It was fast!" Nyx said a bit surprised before putting the magazine she was reading inside her purse. "Alright, boys. Ready to go?"

"Yes!" Ryoji exclaimed happily while Minato just nodded.

Less than a minute later, the monorail began to gradually reduce speed until it stopped completely and opened the doors, the mechanical voice making a last announcement before the passengers left. Much to Minato's pleasure, they managed to be the only ones in the cabin, so he could get out without the fear of being crushed by countless people trying to get on the station at the same time, just like it happened many times back in Tokyo.

Yeah, now that he stopped to think about that, living in a big metropolis had its own problems.

The station was very simple, with only two telephone cabins to the side, a place to leave bicycles nearby, a lamp post here and there… Really, nothing special at all. In fact, it even looked a bit too plain and simple, but at least it was relatively empty, which for Minato was good enough.

He never liked places with too many people. First and most obviously because he wasn't good with people and second because crowded places were very noisy.

But that station? Ah, that station was very quiet and calm, just like Minato liked.

"Come all! Come all and receive the blessing of the lord and savior!"

Or at least it was until that high-pitched voice began yelling.

A bit annoyed at the sudden disturbance, Minato turned his head around to look at who was the noisy person and became very surprised with what he saw.

It wasn't a person; the pink, nearly theatrical butterfly-like eyemask with an II on the forehead was a very clear sign it was a Shadow. If that wasn't enough, then the appearance of that *person* surely was.

The Shadow was huge, nearly triple of Minato's size, but looked like a young woman wearing only the bottom half of a dress. Half of her body was colored black and the other half was white, her hair looked like long locks made of scrolls with text written on it and floated in the air. For some reason, she was sitting on the ground, her legs spread out and had a big, empty bowl of ramen made of porcelain in front of her and two plastic pots of ramen also empty to her sides, one to the right and one to the left.

Other very curious details that caught Minato's attention were the letters B and J stamped on her breasts.

Why did she have those things stamped there? It made him very intrigued.

Very intrigued.

Extremely intrigued.

So intrigued he couldn't stop looking.

"Minato, what are you looking at?"

Ryoji's sudden question made the blue-haired boy notice what he was doing and shake his head to snap out of his thoughts, his cheeks turning a deep red. It deeply bothered him, but for some reason even he failed to understand, Minato could find some Shadows a bit… attractive.

Not all of them, of course; some looked so heinous neither a mother would be able to ignore their ugliness, but some were… cute. Like the Idol and Mother Shadows, for example. He never told that to anyone, though. If being a Persona User wasn't bad enough, finding some Shadows, the creatures that hated him the most, cute or even attractive would make him be even more rejected by society.

Probably they would start thinking he was a Persona User AND a masochist.

"Oh! What is she doing?" Ryoji asked running in the direction of the Shadow.

Minato noticed the imprudent move his brother was doing and tried to stop him, but the black-haired boy was too fast and approached the Shadow in the blink of an eye.

"Ryoji!" Nyx said worried and went after he son, Minato closely following her.

"Hey, miss! What are you doing with those bowls of ramen?" the boy innocently asked.

"Ah! Someone decided to listen to me!" the Shadow said with a satisfied voice. "I've finally found a person who's willing to…"

"Ryoji! How many times have I told you not to run away from me? And talk to strangers?" Nyx quickly got on the boy's side and scolded him.

"Sorry…" Ryoji looked down a bit sad.

"Please, let him be, my good woman!" the Shadow said dramatically, putting both hands up. "If he approached me, it is surely because the lord and savior decided so!"

"The… lord and savior?" Nyx raised an eyebrow. "You don't mean… the Great Will, do you?"

The sitting creature gasped in horror.

"Of course not! The Great Will is no savior, but a fake god! A vile being that wants to manipulate the world under its tyrannical desires!"

"Don't Shadows want the same thing?" Ryoji asked to no one in specific.

"I thought so," Nyx murmured. "So, who are you talking about?"

Minato observed the scene hiding behind the security of his adoptive mother, peeking sometimes to see what was happening. A Persona User being so close to a Shadow was potentially dangerous, which was also the reason why Nyx approached the creature enough be at Ryoji's side, but not enough to expose Minato.

"I'm talking about the great lord of all and savior of this world! The one who will bring eternal prosperity to Shadows! The one who's perfect and invincible!"

"The one… who will bring eternal prosperity to…" Nyx seemed a bit worried. "Who are you talking about?"

"No one less than the great lord Udon!"

…

"U… udon?" the night goddess asked confused.

"Do you mean that thing people eat or something different?" Ryoji asked putting a finger on his chin.

"Thing?! Don't dare to call the lord and savior just a thing!" the Shadow shot back offended. "Lord Udon is a higher being that manifests in all kinds of noodles! In fact, it was him who taught the world the art of making noodles!"

"And for what reason someone would do that?" Nyx nearly facepalmed.

"Haven't you paid attention? Lord Udon manifests in all kinds of noodles! By teaching us how to make noodles, he taught us how to have him with us all the time! Ramen!"

That time, Nyx couldn't avoid facepalming.

"I knew the Shadows were all bananas crazy, but that girl is off the charts," the goddess grumbled.

"How dare you!" the Shadow pointed an accusing finger at Nyx and yelled. "Don't mock the lord and savior! He and his most faithful servant were the ones who saved me from ruin, don't you know?!"

"Oh, really?" Nyx said challenging and crossed her arms. "Why don't you tell me how, then?"

"Of course! Then you'll understand the true power of the lord and savior!"

The Shadow raised both arms to the sky and began narrating her story.

"Much before discovering about the lord and savior, I, Arcana Priestess, lived a miserable life. I lacked the power and the support to live on my own, unable to choose my own path and forever condemned to spend the rest of my days laying on the ground, watching the world around me march forward, while I stood motionless in time!"

Nyx shook her head and lowly muttered:

"Unable to make decisions and always laying sloppily on the ground like a loser… The perfect opposite of the Arcana Priestess. She's an Arcana Shadow, without a doubt…"

The Shadow, named Arcana Priestess, didn't hear the goddess's mockery and continued her dramatical narration like nothing had happened.

"However, one day, I was blessed by the heavens to cross ways with my master, Arcana Hierophant, who showed me the ways of the Soup Cult and directed me to the light!"

"Soup Cult?" Ryoji asked tilting his head.

"It's a weird religion nobody knows who created or when," Nyx explained. "Where it was created is also a mystery, but because the first documented members were from Mementos, many people believe that's where it all began."

The goddess suddenly seemed to notice something as her face changed to a confused expression and she asked the Shadow with a serious tone:

"Wait, did you say Arcana Hierophant?"

"Yes! I said!" Arcana Priestess said loudly. "He's my master and the one who introduced me to the ways of the soup! Ramen!"

"Are you telling me there are more Arcana Shadows here?!"

The crazy cultist stopped to think for a moment, then answered:

"Yes. And if I'm not mistaken, there are twelve living here in Port Island, already counting me."

Nyx facepalmed and had to suppress a huge urge to groan in frustration, having discovered her plan of moving to a place where Minato could live in peace began falling apart even before they moved.

Port Island had a history of having a smaller concentration of Shadows than other cities in the same side of the country, especially for being so far from the Shadow Capital, but to compensate, it had not only one, but twelve Arcana Shadows, one of the worst kinds of Shadows in existence, only rivaled by the Shadow Selves.

In other words, moving from Tokyo to there was like trading six for half a dozen.

"I should have researched about this place better…" the night goddess lowly grumbled.

"Nyx? What's wrong?" Ryoji looked confused at the woman.

"But enough of me! Let's have a moment to talk about the lord and savior!" Arcana Priestess suddenly shouted. "I still have a lot to learn, but my master taught me enough to spread the savior's words and love for everyone!"

"WE ARE NOT INTERESTED. THANK YOU VERY MUCH," Nyx rudely groaned, grabbing Ryoji's hand and preparing to leave before the Shadow had a chance to restart her nonsense.

"Please! Wait!" the Shadow grabbed Nyx's arm with her slender fingers, preventing her from moving.

"Hey! Get your hands off me!" the goddess complained, letting go of Ryoji's hand to grab Arcana Priestess's arm.

"No! You can't go!" the Shadow insisted. "Can't you understand?! If you reject the savior's words you and your family…"

The sentence was left unfinished as Arcana Priestess suddenly stopped speaking and began sniffing the air.

"What are you doing, you crazy girl?!" Nyx shook her arm many times, trying to get free from the Shadow's grasp without success.

"This smell… I know this smell…" the crazy cultist Shadow said to no one in specific as she continued sniffing and looking around. "This horrible, disgusting stench… I've felt it before. I don't know how I didn't feel sooner, but I would never forget such hellish scent… It's a… A…"

Arcana Priestess suddenly glanced at Nyx's legs, her usually emotionless face now showing signs of something else neither the goddess nor her son could recognize, leaving the latter extremely confused.

Nyx, on other hand, despite unable to recognize the emotion barely seen in the Shadow's face, understood what was happening and felt her blood freezing.

She tried to get free from Arcana Priestess's grasp and quickly back away, but the vile religious creature used her other arm to push Nyx to the side, making the goddess fall on the ground and revealing a little, scared boy with blue hair.

"Nyx!" Ryoji hushed worried to this mother's side.

"A SHADOW ENSLAVER!" Arcana Priestess yelled in a mix of horror, disgust and anger, her voice echoing in the empty station and paralyzing the little Persona User in place.

"Minato!" Nyx said worried, trying to get up.

"FOUL CREATURE! PESTILENT SERVANT OF THE FAKE GOD! ASSASSIN! MONSTER! DEMON! SUFFER FROM THE LORD AND SAVIOR'S PURIFICATION, YOU MISERABLE PIECE OF SHIT!" the Shadow angrily shouted as she inexplicably took a bag full of salt from only God knows where and threw a handful at the boy.

The salt by itself didn't make a single scratch and Minato shielded his face with both hands, making the 'purification' be completely harmless, but the startle of being suddenly attacked made him step back, trip on his own feet and fall sitting on the ground.

"Minato!" Ryoji rushed worried to his brother's side and kneeled close to him. "Are you okay?!"

The blue-haired boy was about to nod when more salt hit his left cheek, making him cover his face again and turn his face away.

"BE GONE, SHADOW ENSLAVER!" Arcana Priestess shouted, grabbing another portion of salt from the bag in her hand and preparing to throw it.

Powered by the anger of seeing her son being attacked, Nyx got up and launched herself at the Shadow, grabbing the hand full of salt with unbelievable speed and twisting it, making Arcana Priestess drop the salt and yell in pain:

"ARGH! What are you doing?! Take your hands off me!"

"You little bitch… How dare you hurt my boy?" the goddess said in a very threatening tone.

"Your boy?! You call that… that… **THING** your boy?!" the Shadow cried in a mix of pain and disgust.

Ryoji got extremely angry at how his brother was called, ran to the religious creature and huffed with red cheeks:

"Don't call Minato a thing! He isn't a thing! You are!"

Arcana Priestess gasped horrified.

"You two protect that assassin of Shadows?! That's sacrilege! I can't believe I offered the lord and savior's grace to you two! You should… EEEEEEEEEK!"

The Shadow suddenly screeched as Nyx twisted her hand even more.

"Do you wanna die?" the goddess's expression turned scarily dark. "Because I'm getting very tempted to. And I'm pretty sure that, as a Shadow, nobody will really…"

A small, trembling hand grabbing hers made Nyx stop midsentence and look a bit astonished at the little boy who interrupted her.

"Minato?"

The boy gave no response; just stared at the ground in front of him.

"Minato? What happened?" Ryoji approached the blue-haired boy and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Are you feeling pain somewhere?"

Still no response, but the grip on Nyx's hand became tighter.

"Uh…?" the goddess looked confused at the little boy for a moment, until her eyes went wide open in realization. "Oh! I see…"

The night goddess let go of the Shadow's hand and stepped back. Arcana Priestess rubbed her hurt pulse and grumbled a bit.

"Huh?" Ryoji tilted his head puzzled.

"Minato wanted me to stop," Nyx told, using her other hand to gently pat the boy on his head.

Without saying a single word, the young Persona User managed to make his will clear. Getting what he wanted just by body language was tricky sometimes, especially because Minato wasn't good at expressing himself neither by gestures, but thanks to eleven years living with him, Nyx learned how to interpret every one of his actions, even if it wasn't very clear at first.

Why he didn't outright say what he wanted neither to his family? That was a thing his adoptive mother and brother still had to figure out.

"Ugh… You miserable…" Arcana Priestess hissed. "You'll pay for this! Your punishment will come…"

"Can you just shut up?" Nyx interrupted with a glare.

"Yeah! You're getting very annoying!" Ryoji joined. "And you owe Minato an apology! Now, say you're sorry or I'll use my…"

Minato suddenly put a hand on his brother's shoulder and shook his head.

"But she attacked you, Minato! We can't let it just like that!" the black-haired boy said. "You didn't do anything wrong and she still attacked you! Don't it make you angry?"

It did. Of course it did. So much that Minato could feel Thanatos anxiously moving inside him, just waiting for the first opening to escape and punch that Shadow to death. So much he could feel Orpheus desperately trying to keep his 'compatriot' under control. So much the simple action of trying to keep his own Persona inside him made his head hurt.

But he had to control that anger. He couldn't lose to it.

He nearly killed six innocent people the last time he let his emotions run freely and he didn't want that to happen ever again, even if the victim would be a Shadow.

"Ugh… Seems like… the little Shadow Enslaver knows his place…" Arcana Priestess giggled, despite still feeling a lot of pain in her pulse. "He understands that he, as a servant of the fake god, has no right to fight against the lord and savior's words!"

"It's just soup…" Nyx grumbled.

"It isn't just soup!" Priestess huffed. "And just because he seems to be more prudent than I expected from a little piece of shit like him, I'll let you all go with only a warning this time!"

Both Ryoji and Nyx felt an urge to shot something back, but Minato grabbed their hands and began dragging them away, making both to hold their words for themselves and let the boy guide them from the Shadow.

With a satisfied, victorious smile on her face, Arcana Priestess returned to her original position and once again waited for someone who would be accepting of her god's blesses to approach.

 _ **Later at Paulownia Mall…**_

It was inevitable. Wherever they went, people would stare weirdly at Minato.

The young Persona User hated to be the center of attentions but was forced to admit it was inevitable in his situation. After all, how many people out there walk around leaving a trail of salt behind them?

Fortunately for him, the salt left in his clothes eventually fell completely and he stopped leaving clues of his track, but the janitors that had to follow him all the way from the entrance didn't seem very happy even after the salt was over.

"Don't mind those people around, Minato!" Ryoji saw his brother's slightly sad face and tried to cheer him up. "I'll buy something great for you, so you'll feel better, okay?"

What Ryoji said could be also written as:

"I'll make Nyx buy another gift that I think is good for you, despite totally not being, so you'll feel better, okay?"

Nonetheless, it didn't matter to Minato what he would receive or who would pay for that; just knowing that Ryoji cared so much about him was enough to make a small smile appear in his face.

"Ryoji, don't make promises you can't keep," Nyx said while still looking for any place that had backpacks that weren't ridiculously overpriced.

"But I'll buy something to Minato!" Ryoji said a bit offended and took three coins from his pocket. "See? I brought money!"

Both the Persona User and the goddess couldn't help feeling a bit taken aback. For the first time during all their lives together, Ryoji would buy something to Minato without asking money to their mother.

The coins he brought wouldn't be enough to buy anything special, but what matters is the intention, right?

"Can I go look for something with Minato?" Ryoji asked.

Minato shuddered a bit. Spending time with his brother was always good, but after being attacked by Arcana Magician the previous day and by Arcana Priestess just a few minutes before, he wasn't feeling very confident to leave Nyx's side.

The goddess also seemed a bit worried at the thought of leaving her boys alone and scratched the back of her head.

"I don't know, Ryoji. Maybe it's best if we're finished and have time to look for something together."

"I won't let absolutely anyone hurt Minato again! I promise!" Ryoji said as firmly as he could. "If someone tries to do something to him, I'll use my powers to destroy them!"

That didn't make Nyx feel any bit more confident; in fact, it made her even more worried.

Whenever he needed, Ryoji always failed to use any of his powers properly, but when just a little amount of magic would be enough, he would launch Megidolaon like there was no tomorrow.

"I don't know. It's better if…"

The goddess's eyes suddenly opened widely as she noticed something.

"Oh! I finally found a place with reasonably priced backpacks!" the woman suddenly said, making both boys look at the direction she was facing and seeing a shop with many bags, purses and other stuff like that in the display.

Despite a great variety of products being exhibited, Ryoji's eyes quickly changed their focus to another thing close to the shop.

"Oh! A crane machine!" the boy pointed to the arcade close to the shop's entrance.

"Of course there is one of those here…" Nyx lowly mumbled.

"Nyx, can I stay with Minato at the crane machine? It's close to where you'll be, and I can get something for him!"

The goddess was still unsure of leaving her boys, especially her little Persona User, away from her guard, but like Ryoji said it was just a few meters away from where she would be and some time alone with his brother would probably be good to make Minato relax a bit after what happened with the Shadow at the station, so…

"Alright, I'll let you two to stay there," Nyx sighed. "But if something, absolutely anything happens, you two enter the shop and come running straight to me, understood?"

Ryoji nodded excited, grabbed Minato by the hand and dragged him away to the crane machine, while Nyx just looked at the two boys with a slightly worried expression and slowly walked into the shop.

Minato nervously observed his mother getting farther and farther from them, his eyes always locked on her figure.

"Alright! What do you want to get, Minato?" Ryoji asked gluing his face on the glass.

The blue-haired boy wasn't exactly in the mood to play the crane machine, but Ryoji was willing to get something for him and he didn't want to upset his brother, so he scanned all the prizes available and noticed something in a corner that caught his attention.

No, it couldn't be… There was no way…

But it looked just like that… Could it really be…?

His eyes should be playing some prank on him. There was no way. But…

That tone of black, those deep purple parts, those red eyes looking at him… Minato still couldn't believe it was what it was, but he had no doubts left in his mind.

It was a Black Frost plush.

"That one?" Ryoji asked pointing at the plush, to which Minato nodded, his eyes still glued on the toy.

Without hesitation, the boy put one of his coins in the machine and concentrated as much as he could to grab the toy for his brother.

Carefully, he moved the lever and guided the claw towards the desired prize, positioning it where he thought it would grab it and pressed the red button at the right side of the lever. The claw opened, slowly moved down and, much to Ryoji's surprise, totally missed, instead grabbing something that looked like a weird blue demon inside a yellow jar.

"Aww… I missed!" the boy complained as the claw dropped the toy.

Minato took the plush from the machine and looked at it with a slightly disappointed expression before glancing at the Black Frost still lying in the corner.

"I'm sorry, Minato… I'll get it this time!" Ryoji affirmed with confidence, putting another coin in the machine and entering his 'serious mode'.

The Persona User told his brother there was no need to do that and he didn't really want the plush that much (which was a lie), but Ryoji apparently didn't pay attention or knew it was a bluff and outright ignored him.

"Come on… Come on…" he said as the claw slowly approached the plush. "Aaaand… Now!"

The claw ended missing the target again and grabbed a strange creature that looked like one of those weird Japanese clay dolls, making Ryoji grumble a very loud:

"Shit!"

Minato quickly looked inside the shop to see where Nyx was and sighed relieved when he spotted her busy talking on the phone far away from the entrance, where she couldn't hear them.

"I won't give up!" Ryoji puffed his cheeks and put another coin in the machine.

Worried that his brother could fail again and say something he shouldn't when Nyx was near enough to hear them, Minato tried to assume the lever, but Ryoji pushed him away claiming:

"No! I promised I would get something nice to you and I will!"

And guess what? He failed again, this time grabbing a round thing with thin arms and legs and purple marks over it.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!"

The boy prepared to put another coin in the machine, but then he noticed a small, yet very important detail:

"I don't have more money…"

Having failed to get what Minato wanted, Ryoji sadly pouted, crossed his arms and stepped away from the machine, but not before giving it a good kick.

"Seems like you are having bad luck, eh?" a cocky, mocking metallic voice suddenly said, making both boys turn their faces at its owner.

Behind them, a strange creature that looked like a thin plate of golden metal shaped like a sphinx approached, making loud clinks whenever it walked. On the left side of its face, there was a very bizarre green mask with two black eyes with red irises, one atop the other, a creepy smile and an X stamped on what would be its left cheek, making very clear it was a Shadow.

"I saw everything, and it totally breaks my heart to see such innocent children suffering so much because of the evil lady luck!" the Shadow said in a clearly false tone. "If there was a way to turn things on your favor… Oh! Wait! Maybe there is a way!"

Ryoji's eyes glowed with hope.

"Really?!"

"Sure! Of course!" the Shadow loudly affirmed. "How could I possibly forget that? After all, I'm Arcana Fortune. Luck is… my specialty."

Minato frowned; another Shadow whose name had Arcana.

He already had experience with others like that and they weren't a single bit pleasant, so saying he was extremely wary of that creature wouldn't be enough to describe how much he truly suspected of that Shadow's intentions.

"Tell me, my good boy, which toy did you want?" Arcana Fortune gently asked.

Ryoji was about to tell the Shadow when Minato put a hand on his shoulder and warned him they should go after Nyx.

"Huh? Why?" the black-haired boy asked confused. "Don't you want the Black Frost?"

Of course Minato wanted, but trusting a Shadow would be stupidity. Especially if you are a Persona User.

"Oh… So, it's the Black Frost?" the metallic creature slowly walked towards the machine and looked inside it. "Ah, I see, I see… Very good taste, my sir! Just like all of my usual… customers."

The way he said 'customers' made a chill run down Minato's spine. That Shadow was clearly up to something and, whatever it was, couldn't be good.

"Like I said before, my specialty is luck, so binding Lady Fortune to my own desires is nothing to me," the Shadow said with a very arrogant tone. "Coin flips? I get crowns all over my heads. Lottery tickets? They should stop wasting paper making so many when there's only me to get all the prized ones. Bingo? I've said that soooo many times it got boring…"

Another chill ran down Minato's spine. If everything the Shadow said was true, then he could easily manipulate the world around him at his favor, which made him extremely dangerous. After all, he said his specialty was luck, and luck surely isn't limited to just winning prizes or money; it could deeply affect other things in life.

Even death.

"But keeping all this luck to myself would be soooo selfish. So, so selfish... I would never do that! It's so wrong it makes my whole body shiver with disgust!" Arcana Fortune dramatically said. "That's why I offer my abilities to other people, so everyone can smile and have as much luck as they can possibly have!"

The Shadow's altruism was clearly fake, but Minato didn't think he ever planned to sound legit. Unfortunately, in all his innocence, Ryoji failed to notice the true malice hidden behind the creature's words and asked with renewed joy:

"So, you can help me get a present for Minato, right?"

Arcana Fortune giggled.

"Oh, yes! Of course I can! That is…"

He approached his mask to the boys and eerily whispered:

"For a price."

Ryoji blinked confused.

"A… price? But you offer your abilities to make other people happy, don't you?"

"Yes, I do. For a price," the Shadow giggled maliciously. "I mean, sharing is important, but I have to live too, you know? And living is the most important thing of all, sooooo… Of course I need to charge for those things."

"But that's wrong!" Ryoji shot back irritated.

"Wrong? What is wrong? Using my natural ability to gain what I need to live? If that's wrong, then all the policemen, firefighters, bodyguards, shop keepers, chefs, gardeners, mailmen and regular, hard-working people in the entire world are wrong as well, aren't they?"

Ryoji was at a loss of words; he didn't know how to answer that.

"See? There's nothing wrong in what I'm doing. Soooo…" the creature got even closer to the boys. "Let us begin, shall we?"

"B-but…" the black-haired boy looked down. "I don't have more money…"

Arcana Fortune let out a slow, almost devilish low-pitched laugh.

"Oh, my boy, but money isn't everything I take. No, no, no… I'm a flexible man. There are other ways to pay for my services."

"R-really?"

Minato grabbed his brother's hand and tried to push him away from the Shadow, knowing that whatever he would demand as payment couldn't be anything good for them, but before they could leave, Arcana Fortune coldly said:

"I wouldn't do it if I were you, Shadow Enslaver."

The young Persona User froze in place by the hidden hostility hidden in the creature's voice.

"Your brother is trying to do something nice to you and you plan on taking his chance from him? Only because you distrust me? Such heartless selfishness… Although not unexpected from someone of your kind."

"Hey! Take back what you said! Minato is the most generous person in the entire world!" Ryoji grumbled angry.

"Oh, really? In that case, you would be generous enough to let your brother get a present for you, right?"

Minato tried to glare at the Shadow, but his eyes had a faint glimpse of fear that was a bit too noticeable for his own good. Unfortunately, Arcana Fortune saw that and decided to use it at his favor.

"Unless you want to have… bad luck."

Both boys froze.

"I mean, bad luck is soooo bad, you know? All kinds of bad things can happen when you have bad luck, like breaking a leg, losing an eye, maybe a few fingers… The possibilities are, oh, soooo infinite!"

"W-what are you saying?!" Ryoji's voice trembled.

"I'm saying that, if your little brother doesn't stop poking his stupid Persona User nose where he isn't welcome, someone's luck will go down to the depths of Earth and something bad may happen," the Shadow sinisterly giggled. "If it will be to you or to him, I haven't decided yet."

The simple mention of Minato possibly getting hurt was enough to make Ryoji panic and agree to pay whatever the Shadow wanted.

"Excellent! In this case… what was it again?" the Shadow looked at the crane machine and began examining the interior, looking for the Black Frost plush. "Where is it? I need it. I need it, or I won't receive my payment…"

The way Arcana Fortune said that made both boys shiver with worry.

Usually, they would call for Nyx or run after her and their mother would solve things in the blink of an eye, but in their current situation that probably wouldn't be a good line of action. If any of what the Shadow said was true, then he could very easily make them suffer some unfortunate accident before the goddess came to their rescue, and knowing Shadows as they did, the creature would have no problem causing serious injuries to them.

So, for their sake and each other's wellbeing, they both stayed quiet and nervously waited for the outcome of their…

"I'VE FINALLY FOUND YOU!" a high-pitched voice suddenly screamed, making Minato, Ryoji and Arcana Fortune look at the direction it came from.

As soon as they made eye contact with the owner of the voice, Arcana Fortune screamed terrified:

"YOU AGAIN?!"

Not too far from them and approaching unbelievably fast, a weird creature that looked like a woman in a dress over a swirling bundle of flowers wearing a dark-blue mask with an XI on its forehead screeched and yelled furiously, leaving a trail of roses behind it.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THOSE TWO?! COME HERE WITH ME, NOW!" the Shadow screamed ferociously, in what sounded like a mix of anger, ecstasy and something else Minato and Ryoji failed to interpret.

"AAAAH! NOT AGAIN!" Arcana Fortune yapped, turned around and ran away as fast as he could. "JUST WHEN I FINALLY GOT A GOOD DEAAAAAAAAL!"

"COME BACK HERE!" the female Shadow yelled as it passed in front of the boys, chasing the other vile creature.

"SOMEBODY HELP ME! THERE'S A FREAKING YANDERE TRYING TO GET MY ASS!"

"I DON'T WANT YOUR ASS! I WANT YOUR LUCK! I WANT MY ELECTRIC RICE COOKER!"

And just as fast as they appeared, the two Shadows turned around a corner and vanished from the boys' sight, only a few seconds before Nyx left the store carrying two bags with school supplies.

"Well, in the end, I didn't save that much money…" the goddess grumbled a bit. "What about you, boys? Had any luck with the crane machine?"

Minato and Ryoji didn't answer; just kept staring at the direction the two Shadows went, still a bit baffled at the scene they witnessed.

"Boys? What's wrong?" Nyx asked, noticing their puzzled faces.

Still no answer.

"Minato? Ryoji? Are you hearing me? Did something happen?"

Yes, it did, they just didn't know where to start explaining.

 _ **Meanwhile…**_

The skies of the Shadow capital turned a deep black as many Eagle type Shadows left the metropolis and flew to different regions. The whole army was divided in smaller groups with different leaders, but they all received one single order from the colonel:

Find and neutralize the target.

How much time or effort they needed to fulfill the mission was still unknown to them and the only hint they had about the target's possible position were the coordinates of the last time it was caught in their radars, so the job wouldn't be easy.

Nonetheless, they had to do it, no matter what. Otherwise, they all would be fried alive by the president.

 _ **Far from there…**_

"You two should have looked for me as soon as that Shadow appeared!" Nyx scolded Minato and Ryoji as they all made their way back to the monorail, the two boys holding the bought bags and one of the goddess's hands. "I'm especially disappointed with you, Ryoji. How many times did I tell you not to talk with strangers? A Shadow, on top of that! You know how dangerous they can be!"

"I'm sorry…" Ryoji said teary-eyed. "I just wanted to get Minato a present."

"I know that but making deals with a Shadow?" the goddess shook her head in disapproval, then glared at Minato. "I'm also disappointed with you, Minato. I expected you to step in when your brother began being deceived by the Shadow. Especially because you noticed his true intentions."

Minato looked down and sobbed a bit.

"Oh, dear… You two will be the end of me…" Nyx sighed loudly. "Never mind that. What happened is in the past and you two learned your lesson. Now, let's go back home before…"

"HOW DARE YOU SAY SUCH A BLASFEMY ABOUT THE LORD AND SAVIOR?!" Arcana Priestess's high-pitched voice echoed through the station.

"I forgot about her…" Nyx grumbled.

"ME DON'T CARE 'BOUT YA STUPID PIECE OF RAMEN SHIT! ME MORE POWERFUL THAN YA STUPID GOD THINGAMAJIG!" another voice yelled.

"Huh? Who was that?" the night goddess wondered.

She didn't recognize the voice, but Minato and Ryoji widened their eyes in utter shock.

"NOBODY IS MORE POWERFUL THAN THE LORD AND SAVIOR!" Priestess yelled.

"LORD AND SAVIOR?! MORE LIKE TRASH AND GARBAGE SHIT! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"YOU'RE THE ONLY TRASH HERE!"

"MEEEEEE?! LOOK WHO'S SAYIN' THAT!"

"Is she arguing with someone?" Nyx raised an eyebrow.

Minato was about to ask the goddess if they could return to the mall and wait the argument end when a mass of black arms suddenly hit the ground right in front of the three with extreme violence, startling them and making Nyx instinctively put herself in front of the boys.

"GAAAAAH! YA GONNA PAY FOR THIS!" the mass of arms wiggled violently and began punching the ground around him. "ARCANA MAGICIAN IS GONNA KILL YA!"

"Arcana… Magician?" Nyx repeated.

"Huh?! Who calls me?!" the Shadow suddenly stopped moving and pointed its upside-down blue mask at the woman, noticing her and the two boys behind her figure. "Who are ya?! How did ya know mah name?! Are ya lookin' for a…"

The sentence was left unfinished as the Shadow noticed a blue-haired boy hiding behind her.

"A PERSONA USEEEEEER?!" Arcana Magician screamed in horror, getting up (which basically means he just turned his mask to the right position) and wiggling violently. "Me so disgusted! DISGUSTED!"

Minato shuddered and covered his face, the memories of the previous day returning to him.

"Minato, stay behind me!" Nyx ordered.

"Nyx! Nyx! That's the Shadow!" Ryoji pointed an accusing finger at Arcana Magician.

"Huh?"

"The Shadow that hurt Minato yesterday! It's him!"

"What?! Him?!" Nyx asked shocked before launching a fervent glare at the Shadow. "You're the one who hurt my baby boy?!"

"Baby boy?! That thing?!" Magician pointed at Minato with many hands. "Ya the mama of it?! UUUUUURGH! Ya must be huge piece of shit to give birth to Shadow Enslaver!"

"What did you say?" the goddess asked with a very forced smile full of killing intent. "I dare you to repeat."

"Ya dare?! Me gonna say it again! Ya must be…"

…

…

…

"Lost the courage?" Nyx mocked.

…

…

"Hey, I'm speaking with you!"

…

"What the…?"

For some weird reason, Arcana Magician remained in a thinking position, rubbing the chin of his mask with one hand and fidgeting confused with the others.

"What was Arcana Magician gonna say again?" he suddenly asked to no one in specific.

"What?" Nyx asked.

"Me asked what was Arcana…"

Before he could finish his sentence, he pointed his mask at Minato and screamed in utmost horror out of a sudden:

"A PERSONA USEEEEEER?! UUUURGH! ME SO DISGUSTED! DISGUSTED!"

Nyx, Ryoji and Minato couldn't avoid becoming a bit jaw dropped at the scene unfolding in front of them.

"What on Earth just happened?" the goddess asked at a loss of words.

"If you're trying to talk with him, better give up," the sound of Arcana Priestess's voice sounded from behind Magician. "That braindead moron can't keep one thing in his mind for more than a few seconds."

"SHUDDUP, YA STUPID BITCH!" Arcana Magician turned to the other Shadow and screamed at her. "Arcana Magician's memory only keep important stuff! If not important, then Arcana Magician forgets!"

"Well, the Shadow Enslaver there is a bit important and you apparently forgot about him," the female Shadow mocked.

"Shadow Enslaver?!"

Arcana Magician turned his mask to the three family members and as soon as he noticed Minato, he yelled in horror:

"A PERSONA USER?! ME SO DISGUSTED! DISGUSTED!"

Minato felt a sudden urge to cry, but not because he was scared or by how violent the Shadow seemed to be.

He wanted to cry out of embarrassment for once fearing what was probably the biggest, most stupid moron in the entire history of the Universe.

"Hold on just a second…" Ryoji raised an eyebrow. "If what she said is true, then you don't remember what you did to Minato yesterday?"

"Minato?! Whatta fuck is a Minato?!" Arcana Magician tilted his mask. "Is it something to eat?! 'Cause it sounds YUMMY!"

The little Persona User stepped back.

"No, Minato isn't a food! It's my brother!" Ryoji said a bit offended.

"Who?! Dat miserable little piece of shit?!" the Shadow pointed a finger at the boy hiding behind Nyx. "HA! His name is Minato?! It's fitting, 'cause it sounds STUPID!"

"But you just said…"

"Better to ignore it," Nyx recommended.

"Yeah! Me gonna ignore it!" Arcana Magician shouted, apparently thinking Nyx spoke with him. "Me no time to waste with Shadow Enslaver! Gonna kill dat soup thingamajigger crazy ass bitch for hitting Arcana Magician! Gonna show her his Upan bullshit is…"

Before Magician could finish his sentence, a tree-like monument of ice covered him and exploded in many small particles shortly after, covering the area with snowflakes and throwing the Shadow to the ground.

"How dare you say the lord and savior is bullshit?!" Arcana Priestess screamed irate. "And it's Udon! UDON! Pronounce it correctly, you scourge!"

Arcana Magician quickly got up, let out a furious roar and turned his mask to the other creature, his entire body letting out a purplish aura. Noticing things were getting very dangerous, Nyx grabbed Minato's and Ryoji's hands and took many steps back until they were at a safe distance.

"YA STUPID BITCH! DO YA THINK A BUFUDYNE IS GONNA DO ANYTHING TO ARCANA MAGICIAN?!" the multi-handed Shadow yelled as the purplish aura moved towards many of his hands and turned into sharp swords. "YER MAGIC IS WEAK! WEAK! ME GONNA SHOW YA WHAT TRUE POWER IS!"

Without warning, Arcana Magician rushed into Arcana Priestess, relentlessly attacking with his swords and hitting her with an extremely powerful Shadow Run. The impact of the attack launched the female Shadow out of the station, making her land on her back. It only didn't hurt her as much as it could because she had enough time to block some of the hit with her arms and she had the luck of landing on grass, and not on the hard concrete.

"HA! How did ya like that?!" Arcana Magician laughed.

"Just as much as you'll like THIS!" Arcana Priestess roared as she quickly took sitting position and extended her arms, a pinkish aura emanating from them.

The aura covered her arms in only a few seconds, then shot straight on Magician's direction, directly hitting him on his mask and launching him away.

"This is the power of the lord and savior!" Priestess laughed maniacally. "You're no match for it!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Magician screamed in pure anger, his hands frenetically hitting the ground before he got up. "NOW ME VERY ANGRY!"

Fueled by killing intent, Arcana Magician ran in the direction of his adversary and jumped on her, using his many hands to pull her hair, punch her body and hit her with his swords. Despite being in disadvantage, Priestess tried to fight back, grabbing her opponent's mask with both hands. She also summoned many medium sized ice blocks around them and began throwing everything on Magician.

"YER BUFULA SKILLS ARE GONNA DO NOTHING! NOOOOOOTHIIIIIIIIING!"

"YOUR SWORDS HAVE NO POWER AGAINST ME, AS I'M PROTECTED BY THE LORD AND SAVIOR!"

The two Shadows were so concentrated on beating the living shit out of each other they didn't notice they began rolling away from the station, leaving Nyx, Ryoji and Minato completely astonished.

"Where are they going?" Ryoji asked innocently.

"I don't know, but I hope it's somewhere very far away from us…" Nyx half answered, half sighed.

The sound of the two Arcana Shadows slowly disappeared as they rolled farther and farther away from the station, eventually leaving everything in silence. The only thing to break it was the monorail lazily arriving.

"Well, that's convenient…" Nyx commented on the perfect timing.

Minato sighed relieved at the sight of the monorail. They were finally going home.

"Wait!" Ryoji let go of his mother's hand and gave her an exasperated look. "I still have to get Minato's present!"

The blue-haired boy almost said he didn't care about any present and just wanted to go home but noticed it would be too rude and decided to keep it for himself. After all, the last thing he wanted was to upset Ryoji.

"We'll have to leave it for another day," Nyx said.

"But the Black Frost may not be there another day!" the boy argued.

That was true and the idea of losing the plush he had longed to put his hands on for many years after being so close to it really bothered Minato. However, the experience with that Shadow named Arcana Fortune made him very unwilling to get close to the crane machine again.

Or at least until his craving for the plush became so unbearable he couldn't help returning there, which would probably happen in three days at most.

"Ryoji, I understand that, but I think…" Nyx spied Minato hiding behind her and firmly holding her dress. "We've had enough for today."

"Awww…" the black-haired boy pouted.

"Hey, don't pout. Good boys don't pout."

Ryoji continued pouting. With a loud sigh, Nyx grabbed the boy's hand and began walking towards the monorail, with Minato right behind her, still holding her dress.

They got inside the monorail, found seats and prepared to go home. Just a few seconds after they sat, the vehicle began moving, heading to the domiciliar district of Port Island.

"Phew… I'm tired," the night goddess yawned. "But we can't rest yet. I still have some of the moving to organize and you two have to prepare your backpacks and books for tomorrow."

Oh, yes… There was still that. The following day, his life in Gekkoukan School would start and he wasn't feeling any bit excited about that.

How could he? Those first few days in Port Island meant his life in that new town would hardly be any different from the one he had in Tokyo and Tokyo Elementary. In other words, he would continue to be harassed by the Shadows and despised by everyone else, which didn't sound any bit appealing.

Which also kind of conflicted with his dislike for changes; after all, if his life there would be the exact same he had before moving, then that should make him happy or at least satisfied that his new life wouldn't have any major differences from his previous one. However, this thought alone was enough to drain him of all his energy.

Conflicted by his paradoxical emotions, Minato let out a loud sigh that echoed in the empty monorail, making his unease very noticeable.

In Tokyo, in Port Island, in Paulownia Mall, in Tokyo Elementary… No matter the place, being him sucked A LOT.

 _ **Meanwhile…**_

Walking through the dense forest wouldn't be easy under normal circumstances, but having a bullet stuck in your leg would make it ten times worse.

A hundred times worse if there were bullets stuck all over your body.

A thousand times worse if you didn't know where you were supposed to go.

Ten thousand times worse if you didn't even know where you were.

It didn't matter, though. Even if her body wasn't working properly, even if she had no idea of where she was and even if her destination was uncertain, she wouldn't stop walking.

Spiky branches, mud, water, bugs, worms, the unbearable warmth… None of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was…

"Huh?!"

She threw herself inside a hole under a tree and remained in complete silence. She couldn't see them but could hear their wings flapping above her. By the sound, she could determine they were seven Eagle type Shadows.

"What are you waiting for, you bunch of maggots?!" a rash and authoritarian voice shouted.

"Where are we even supposed to go?!" a high-pitched voice shouted back. "We lost her hours ago! Not even our radars managed to find her!"

"What does it matter?! We have to keep looking and find her or the president will fry us alive!"

The sound of flapping wings became more and more distant until it completely disappeared. When she was sure the coast was clear, she got out of the hole and began walking in the opposite direction the Shadows went.

Was that the right direction to go? There was no way to know, but at least it would be safer.

"I have to… I have to…" she weakly muttered, her body feeling extremely heavy. "I have to… I have to…"

She fell to the ground, almost falling unconscious.

Even after two days of intense torture sessions, she still managed to escape from prison and fight her way out of the heavily guarded Shadow Capital, but the abuse her body suffered was finally taking the best of her.

Going to the dreadful lair of the Shadows was a huge mistake. No clues, no useful information… Only pain. Darkness. Violence.

Fear?

She knew it would be dangerous. She knew it was more than she could handle. Yet, she did it. She entered the Shadow Capital, challenged their military power, invaded the Tower of Tartarus…

Even faced the Shadow President himself.

Of all the mistakes she made, fighting the tyrannical leader of the Shadow Society was the biggest of them. She had no chance, his power far exceeded hers and she was nothing more than a little nuisance to him. A mere insect that could be easily crushed by a small portion of his abilities.

But, for whatever reason, he didn't destroy her. Instead, he threw her in a cell and ordered to torture her for information.

The torture sessions were fruitless; she didn't know the answers for their questions, and even if she did there was absolutely no way she would have told them. No, she would pretty much die before telling anything to them.

Die?

Is that what was happening to her? She was… dying?

"No… I can't… Stop…" she forced herself to stand. "I have to… keep going…"

With great difficulty, she limped away, going further and further into the forest, still unsure to where she had to go.

"Even if I don't know where to go… Even if I don't have the energy to keep walking… I must continue… Because…"

…

"I have to find him… I have to protect him…"

 **To be continued…**


End file.
